for eight CAMP flows and sills from the eastern U.S. and Morocco. These data are used first to independently test the astronomically calibrated timescale and sediment accumulation rates within the Triassic-Jurassic rift basins along the eastern North America. The U-Pb, paleontological, magnetostratigraphic and astronomical data are combined to constrain the onset and duration of the CAMP and clarify the temporal relationship between the CAMP and the ETE. The dataset together allows more precise estimates of eruptive volume per unit time, a requirement for rigorous evaluation of climate-driven models for the extinction.

The Late Triassic was a time of major environmental change, yet the precise chronology of events is poorly constrained owing to the nonmarine nature of most preserved Upper Triassic strata and the difficulty in correlating sections. St. Audrie's Bay, southwest England, has been the focus of many studies on this interval of time and is one of the proposed sections for the base Jurassic global stratotype section and point (GSSP). In this study, lacustrine deposits exposed at St. Audrie's Bay have been used to construct a floating astronomical timescale for ˜3.7 m.y. of the Late Triassic based on the recognition of ˜100 k.y. eccentricity cycles in rock color. In addition, we have correlated this timescale with an existing magnetostratigraphy through the same succession and produced an astronomically calibrated record of geomagnetic polarity. Using a novel statistical procedure, we have determined the correlation between this succession and the Late Triassic geomagnetic polarity timescale of the Newark Basin, North America, on which the current (2004) geological timescale is based. Our results show unequivocally that the studied St. Audrie's Bay succession represents part of the Norian and we demonstrate for the first time that cyclostratigraphy can be used in the correlation of Mesozoic strata between North America and Europe.

A detailed magnetic polarity timescale for the Permo-Triassic Boundary interval, critical for correlating events in marine and terrestrial paleoenvironments, is not yet well-established. Recently, late Permian magnetostratigraphic studies have been reported for non-marine sections in Europe and South Africa (Szurlies et al., 2003; Nawrocki, 2004; Ward et al., 2005). However, these sections are devoid of index fossil suitable for correlation with marine successions and also lack age constraints from radioisotopic dating methods. In other words, it is dubious to correlate these magnetostratigraphic data with the GSSP Permo-Triassic boundary and mass extinction. The Dewey Lake red beds formation of West Texas, believed to be the youngest Permian formation in North America, has yielded high-quality paleomagnetic data (Molina-Garza et al., 1989; Steiner, 2001) and contains several silicic tuffs potentially enabling high-resolution calibration of the magnetic polarity timescale in this critical age range. The tuffs have yet to be placed into a regional stratigraphic or magnetostratigraphic framework, and it is unclear exactly how many distinct eruptive units are represented by the 7 distinct samples collected to date from widely separated (>160 km) localities. 40Ar/39Ar (sanidine and biotite) and U/Pb (zircon) studies reveal that all 7 sampled tuffs were probably erupted within several hundred ka of the Permo-Triassic boundary as dated at the Meishan GSSP section (Renne et al., 1995; Mundil et al., 2004) but results thus far are inadequate to convincingly resolve age differences between the various samples. U/Pb dating of some samples is severely challenged by Pb-loss from the zircons despite application of the Mattinson (2005) annealing/chemical abrasion technique. 40Ar/39Ar data have been obtained from as many as four different irradiations in order to reduce neutron fluence related error. We observe the familiar ~1% bias between U/Pb and 40Ar/39Ar ages. Biotite

Time-resolved ion beam induced current (TRIBIC) microscopy yields useful information such as carrier mobility and lifetimes in semiconductors and defect locations in devices; however, traditional TRIBIC uses large, expensive particle accelerators that require specialized training to operate and maintain. The time-resolved industrial alpha-source scanning induced current (TRIASSIC) microscope transforms TRIBIC by replacing the particle accelerator facility with an affordable, tabletop instrument suitable for use in research and education at smaller colleges and universities. I will discuss the development of, successes with, setbacks to and future directions for TRIASSIC.

To construct a revised and high resolution calibrated timescale for the Permian-Triassic boundary (PTB) we use (1) high-precision U-Pb zircon age determinations of a unique succession of volcanic ash layers interbedded with deep water fossiliferous sediments in the Nanpanjiang Basin (South China) combined with (2) accurate quantitative biochronology based on ammonoids, conodonts, radiolarians, and foraminifera and (3) tracers of marine bioproductivity (carbon isotopes) across the PTB. The unprecedented precision of the single grain chemical abrasion isotope-dilution thermal ionization mass spectrometry (CA-ID-TIMS) dating technique at sub-per mil level (radio-isotopic calibration of the PTB at the <100 ka level) now allows calibrating magmatic and biological timescales at resolution adequate for both groups of processes. Using these alignments allows (1) positioning the PTB in different depositional setting and (2) solving the age contradictions generated by the misleading use of the first occurrence (FO) of the conodont Hindeodus parvus, whose diachronous first occurrences are arbitrarily used for placing the base of the Triassic. This new age framework provides the basis for a combined calibration of chemostratigraphic records with high-resolution biochronozones of the Late Permian and Early Triassic. Here, we present new single grain U-Pb zircon data of volcanic ash layers from two deep marine sections (Dongpan and Penglaitan) revealing stratigraphic consistent dates over several volcanic ash layers bracketing the PTB. These analyses define weighted mean 206Pb/238U ages of 251.956±0.033 Ma (Dongpan) and 252.062±0.043 Ma (Penglaitan) for the last Permian ash bed. By calibration with detailed litho- and biostratigraphy new U-Pb ages of 251.953±0.038 Ma (Dongpan) and 251.907±0.033 Ma (Penglaitan) are established for the onset of the Triassic.

The emplacement of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province during the late Triassic and early Jurassic is implicated in the end-Triassic mass extinction and is associated with dramatic increases in atmospheric pCO2. Changes in the isotopic composition of CO2 as recorded on land and in the ocean have been observed in many sections worldwide, but the timing and causes of the changes are debated. Recent high-resolution ash bed dating (Schaltegger et al., 2008; Schoene et al., 2010; Guex et al., 2012; Wotzlaw et al., 2014) from a continuous Rhaetian-Hettangian section near Levanto, Peru, provide an opportunity to understand the duration of these carbon cycle disruptions, and ammonite biostratigraphy allows comparison to other sections. We measured % organic carbon and % inorganic carbon along with δ13Corganic and δ13Ccarbonate at the section near Levanto. We find a series of δ13Corganic excursions that are similar to those found in other Triassic-Jurassic successions, both from the Tethyan (St. Audrie's Bay, UK) and Panthalassic oceans (Kennecott Point, CAN), pointing to the global extent of these changes. At Levanto, we can identify a brief, initial positive carbon isotope excursion followed first by a sharp negative excursion that coincides with the last appearance of Triassic ammonites, and then a more extended positive carbon isotope excursion that extends into the initial Jurassic recovery. Using the ash bed dates from Levanto, we are able for the first time to estimate robustly the duration of each carbon isotope excursion across the Triassic-Jurassic interval. These estimates of durations aid in our understanding of timing and causes of carbon cycle perturbations associated with the emplacement of CAMP and its relation to mass extinction.

The Middle Triassic stratigraphy in Europe can be subdivided into a marine section of the Germanic and Paris Basin and a continental red-bed succession of Western Europe (Irish Basin, Wessex Basin). The link between the marine and continental is uncertain due to a lack of biostratigraphic information but recent palaeomagnetic studies have given a better understanding of the two environments (Hounslow et. al, 2001). In this study we have produced geochemical evidence which emphasize the implications of the palaeomagnetic data. We show that the marine and continental strata can be correlated using carbon isotopes. Throughout Europe the Middle Triassic is characterized by limestone deposits of the Muschelkalk Formation that contain evidence of a hiatus in sedimentation due to sea-level fall in the Middle Muschelkalk with the consequent deposition of evaporites. The Sherwood Sandstone Group (SSG) characterizes the Middle Triassic of Western Europe. The SSG is dominated by fluvial deposits with intercalated floodplain deposits, sand-flats and playas, which are penetrated by dolocretes and calcretes. The abundance of fluvial channels and sandflats are dependent on the fluvial activity and the water table height. In both depositional environments water plays a major role in the type of sediment. The volume of water is controlled by the prevalent climate. Climate signals are stored in carbon isotopes in both the marine Muschelkalk and the continental SSG. Carbon isotopes from the SSG from the Corrib Field, Slyne Basin, west of Ireland and from the Muschelkalk of the Germanic Basin have thus been interpreted in terms of climate change linked to stratigraphy. The continental sediments show a distinct positive carbon isotope excursion (taken from dolocretes), which is interpreted to present a more arid climate. In contrast the marine limestones exhibit a negative carbon isotopes excursion from a sea level low stand for the same time interval. The plot of both carbon isotopes

The end-Triassic mass extinction overlapped with the eruption of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP), and release of CO2 and other volcanic volatiles has been implicated in the extinction. However, the timing of marine biotic recovery versus CAMP eruptions remains uncertain. Here we use Hg concentrations and isotopes as indicators of CAMP volcanism in continental shelf sediments, the primary archive of faunal data. In Triassic-Jurassic strata, Muller Canyon, Nevada, Hg levels rise in the extinction interval, peak before the appearance of the first Jurassic ammonite, remain above background in association with a depauperate fauna, and fall to pre-extinction levels during significant pelagic and benthic faunal recovery. Hg isotopes display no significant mass independent fractionation within the extinction and depauperate intervals, consistent with a volcanic origin for the Hg. The Hg and palaeontological evidence from the same archive indicate that significant biotic recovery did not begin until CAMP eruptions ceased. PMID:27048776

The end-Triassic mass extinction overlapped with the eruption of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP), and release of CO2 and other volcanic volatiles has been implicated in the extinction. However, the timing of marine biotic recovery versus CAMP eruptions remains uncertain. Here we use Hg concentrations and isotopes as indicators of CAMP volcanism in continental shelf sediments, the primary archive of faunal data. In Triassic-Jurassic strata, Muller Canyon, Nevada, Hg levels rise in the extinction interval, peak before the appearance of the first Jurassic ammonite, remain above background in association with a depauperate fauna, and fall to pre-extinction levels during significant pelagic and benthic faunal recovery. Hg isotopes display no significant mass independent fractionation within the extinction and depauperate intervals, consistent with a volcanic origin for the Hg. The Hg and palaeontological evidence from the same archive indicate that significant biotic recovery did not begin until CAMP eruptions ceased.

U-Pb dating using Chemical Abrasion, Isotope Dilution Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometry (CA-ID-TIMS) is the analytical method of choice for geochronologists, who are seeking highest temporal resolution and a high degree of accuracy for single grains of zircon. The use of double-isotope tracer solutions, cross-calibrated and assessed in different EARTHTIME labs, coinciding with the reassessment of the uranium decay constants and further improvements in ion counting technology led to unprecedented precision better than 0.1% for single grain, and 0.05% for population ages, respectively. These analytical innovations now allow calibrating magmatic and biological timescales at resolution adequate for both groups of processes. To construct a revised and high resolution calibrated timescale for the Permian-Triassic boundary (PTB) we use (i) high-precision U-Pb zircon age determinations of a unique succession of volcanic ash beds interbedded with shallow to deep water fossiliferous sediments in the Nanpanjiang Basin (South China) combined with (ii) accurate quantitative biochronology based on ammonoids and conodonts and (iii) carbon isotope excursions across the PTB. Using these alignments allows (i) positioning the PTB in different depositional environments and (ii) solving age/stratigraphic contradictions generated by the index, water depth-controlled conodont Hindeodus parvus, whose diachronous first occurrences are arbitrarily used for placing the base of the Triassic. This new age framework provides the basis for a combined calibration of chemostratigraphic records with high-resolution biochronozones of the Late Permian and Early Triassic. Besides the general improvement of the radio-isotopic calibration of the PTB at the ±100 ka level, this will also lead to a better understanding of cause and effect relations involved in this mass extinction.

The end-Triassic mass extinction overlapped with the eruption of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP), and release of CO2 and other volcanic volatiles has been implicated in the extinction. However, the timing of marine biotic recovery versus CAMP eruptions remains uncertain. Here we use Hg concentrations and isotopes as indicators of CAMP volcanism in continental shelf sediments, the primary archive of faunal data. In Triassic–Jurassic strata, Muller Canyon, Nevada, Hg levels rise in the extinction interval, peak before the appearance of the first Jurassic ammonite, remain above background in association with a depauperate fauna, and fall to pre-extinction levels during significant pelagic and benthic faunal recovery. Hg isotopes display no significant mass independent fractionation within the extinction and depauperate intervals, consistent with a volcanic origin for the Hg. The Hg and palaeontological evidence from the same archive indicate that significant biotic recovery did not begin until CAMP eruptions ceased. PMID:27048776

Purpose: This study explores how highly correlated time variables (occupational cohort timescales) contribute to confounding and ambiguity of interpretation. Methods: Occupational cohort timescales were identified and organized through simple equations of three timescales (relational triads) and the connections between these triads (timescale web). The behavior of the timescales was examined when constraints were imposed on variable ranges and interrelationships. Results: Constraints on a timescale in a triad create high correlations between the other two timescales. These correlations combine with the connections between relational triads to produce association paths. High correlation between timescales leads to ambiguity of interpretation. Conclusions: Understanding the properties of occupational cohort timescales, their relational triads, and the timescale web is helpful in understanding the origins of otherwise obscure confounding bias and ambiguity of interpretation. PMID:25647318

Triassic-Jurassic rift basins in the eastern US record an excellent record of high frequency climate change dominated by roughly 25, 44, 100 and 400 k.y. Milankovitch climate cycles reflecting continuous sedimentation in these lacustrine basins (Olsen, 1986). Similarly, Goldhammer et al. (1990) showed a well developed record from a Mid-Triassic carbonate platform from the italian alps dominated by precessional (20 k.y.) and subordinate 100 k.y. eccentricity cycles, however, relatively complete cyclic records with bundling of 5 precessional cycles per eccentricity cycle occurred only during long term low-stand or high-stand when accommodation allowed all beats to be recorded. Similarly, Late Triassic off-shelf facies in the Alps show a strong Milankovitch climate forcing in the Triassic, the authors examined the large Late Triassic carbonate platform in Hungary to attempt to determine how well this large shallow marine platform recorded high frequency sea level changes driven by Milankovitch orbital forcing. A combination of 2 km of detailed logs of cores and outcrops provided a data base.

Geologic timescales, of one form or another, are used in most undergraduate geosciences courses, even including introductory physical geology or equivalent. However, satisfactory discussions of how geologic timescales originated, and how they have evolved to modern versions, are far too often conveniently or inconveniently left out of classroom discussions. Yet it is these kinds of discussions that have the potential of solidifying student appreciation of deep time and rates of geologic processes. We use the history and development of the Geological Society of America Geologic TimeScale, which reflects major developments in the fields of stratigraphy, geochronology, magnetic polarity stratigraphy, astrochronology, and chemostratigraphy, as a focus of how specific details of timescales can be used to teach about time. Advances in all of these fields have allowed many parts of the timescale to be calibrated to precisions approaching less than 0.05 %. Notable time intervals for which collaborative, multifaceted efforts have led to dramatic improvements in our understanding of the character and temporal resolution of key evolutionary events, in both marine and terrestrial environments, include the Triassic-Jurassic, Permo-Triassic, and Neoproterozoic-Phanerozoic boundaries (or transitions). Many of the details, but certainly not all, can be incorporated in discussions of how we know about geologic time in the classroom. For example, we presently understand that both the end-Permian ecological crisis and the biostratigraphic Permian-Triassic boundary, as calibrated by conodonts, lie within a ca. 700 ka long normal polarity chron. The reverse to normal polarity transition at the beginning of this chron is ca. 100 ka earlier than the ecological crisis and thus slightly older than the current estimate, based on high precision U-Pb zircon age determinations, of ca. 252.4 Ma for the Permian-Triassic boundary. This polarity transition occurred during the early part of

Eruption of Earth's largest flood basalt, the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) has been proposed as the trigger for a major carbon cycle disruption at the Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction interval at ~201 Ma. Inferred from negative excursions in the carbon isotopic composition (δ13C) of carbonate and organic matter, this perturbation has been linked to massive dissociation of isotopically light, methane-rich gas hydrates caused by volcanogenic CO2-induced global warming. However, both the sequence and duration of the CAMP eruptions relative to the carbon cycle perturbation remain circumstantial and indirect, because the data have been from stratigraphic sections far from the flood basalts and without accumulation rate constraints. Here we use a record of atmospheric (δ13C) from specific molecules (nC25 - nC32 n-alkanes) diagnostic of terrestrial plant leaf waxes from astronomically-paced cyclical lacustrine strata in which CAMP flood basalts are interbedded to directly examine the relationship between the (δ13C) excursions and their durations. We show that the flood basalts postdate the abrupt start of a ~400 ky negative excursion coincident with the initiation of the mass extinction event, but predate a protracted 1.5 m.y. negative excursion. Based on a modified BLAG carbon cycle model, the timing and long durations of our (δ13C) excursions are incompatible with CAMP-triggered gas hydrate release. Instead, we suggest that the (δ13C) pattern is more consistent with a catastrophically-triggered functional reorganization of the biosphere, part of which involved the ascent of dinosaurs to ecological dominance, playing out over evolutionary time.

Strata of the Moenave Formation on and adjacent to the southern Colorado Plateau in Utah-Arizona, U.S.A., represent one of the best known and most stratigraphically continuous, complete and fossiliferous terrestrial sections across the Triassic-Jurassic boundary. We present a synthesis of new biostratigraphic and magnetostratigraphic data collected from across the Moenave Formation outcrop belt, which extends from the St. George area in southwestern Utah to the Tuba City area in northern Arizona. These data include palynomorphs, conchostracans and vertebrate fossils (including footprints) and a composite polarity record based on four overlapping magnetostratigraphic sections. Placement of the Triassic-Jurassic boundary in strata of the Moenave Formation has long been imprecise and debatable, but these new data (especially the conchostracans) allow us to place the Triassic-Jurassic boundary relatively precisely in the middle part of the Whitmore Point Member of the Moenave Formation, stratigraphically well above the highest occurrence of crurotarsan body fossils or footprints. Correlation to marine sections based on this placement indicates that major terrestrial vertebrate extinctions preceded marine extinctions across the Triassic-Jurassic boundary and therefore were likely unrelated to the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) volcanism. ?? 2011 Elsevier B.V.

data require a significant increase in the age of the Permian-Triassic boundary by more than 2 myr compared to the previous study, which shifts the age to a value older than 253 Ma. Second, neither our data nor those from previous work can confirm or negate the possibility of a very abrupt biotic crisis. Third, even large suites of very high-quality, single-zircon U-Pb analyses for these tuffs cannot, in most cases, yield objective, reliable, and robust dates with accuracies at the sub-myr level - though the temptation to perform arbitrary selection of subsets of the analyses for that purpose is almost irresistible. The last conclusion is not an indictment of zircon U/Pb dating in general (other rocks and other zircon populations can - and do - behave very differently), and further technical advances will likely improve our ability to prepare grains or sub-grains of adequately enhanced quality for analysis. Consequently, the results of the present study strongly suggest that for problems requiring time-scale accuracy, inferences from zircon U-Pb dating must be based on sufficiently large suites of single-crystal or crystal domain, high-precision analyses (<1% error) that are realistically interpreted.

Gravity and magnetic data obtained from the Durham Triassic Basin of North Carolina reveal pronounced positive gravity and magnetic anomalies of 10 milligals and 300 gammas, respectively, along the western border of the basin. In the vicinity of these anomalies, diabase outcrops, some with chilled margins and others with flow features, occur sporadically, but have a combined area of about 100 sq. km. Two-dimensional modeling of the gravity data indicates that the diabase body accounts for the gravity anomaly as a semi-continuous subsurface intrusion. The intrusive body is greater than 250 m thick near the western border of the basin, but thins to about 100 m near the center of the basin. Geochemical data for samples recovered from 4 air-drill sites at one diabase outcrop in Butner, North Carolina yield high MgO concentrations, and low FeO, K2O, and TiO2. The geophysical and geochemical data are consistent with an uncontaminated basaltic magma ascending along a major fissure or fissures and into the basin. In the basin, the diabase encountered unlithified sediments, resulting in both intrusive and extrusive forms. Although similar chemical compositions for Mesozoic North American dikes have been reported, this is the first indication of an intrusive body of such a large extent and primitive chemical composition.

A review of the tetrapod (amphibian and amniote) record across the Permo-Triassic boundary (PTB) indicates a global evolutionary turnover of tetrapods close to the PTB. There is also a within-Guadalupian tetrapod extinction here called the dinocephalian extinction event, probably of global extent. The dinocephalian extinction event is a late Wordian or early Capitanian extinction based on biostratigraphic data and magnetostratigraphy (the extinction precedes the Illawara reversal), so it is not synchronous with the end-Guadalupian marine extinction. The Russian PTB section documents two tetrapod extinction events, one just before the dinocephalian extinction event and the other at the base of the Lystrosaurus assemblage. However, generic diversity across the latter extinction remains essentially the same despite a total evolutionary turnover of tetrapod genera. The Chinese and South African sections document the stratigraphic overlap of Dicynodon and Lystrosaurus. In the Karoo basin, the lowest occurrence of Lystrosaurus is in a stratigraphic interval of reversed magnetic polarity, which indicates it predates the marine-defined PTB, so, as previously suggested by some workers, the lowest occurrence of Lystrosaurus cannot be used to identify the PTB in nonmarine strata. Correlation of the marine PTB section at Meishan, southern China, to the Karoo basin based primarily on magnetostratigraphy indicates that the main marine extinction preceded the PTB tetrapod extinction event. The ecological severity of the PTB tetrapod extinction event has generally been overstated, and the major change in tetrapod assemblages that took place across the PTB was the prolonged and complex "replacement" of therapsids by archosaurs that began before the end of the Permian and was not complete until well into the Triassic. The tetrapod extinctions are not synchronous with the major marine extinctions at the end of the Guadalupian and just before the end of the Permian, so the idea of

A high temperature remanence with thermally-discrete unblocking temperature spectra has been isolated from the redbed samples of the Upper Triassic Yiwanshui Formation collected from south of the Ailaoshan Suture in southern Yunnan Province of China. Two groups of directions were observed: the tilt-corrected mean is D/I = 141.4°/31.2° with α95 = 13.0° based on 12 sites for the first group, and D/I = 207.5°/4.9° with α95 = 16.0° based on 5 sites for the second group. The second group of directions was derived from massively bedded rocks with large uncertainties in determination of the paleo-horizontal and is thus deemed inaccurate. The first group of directions passes the foldtest with dual polarity, and is consistent with results previously reported from the same type section, and probably represents primary magnetization of the rock formation. Comparison with the Triassic paleomagnetic poles for the Baoshan Terrane and the South China Block indicates that the Simao and the Baoshan terranes were probably already amalgamated by late Triassictimes but the coalescence between them and the South China Block may have not been completed until near the end of the Triassic.

Terrestrial time is at present derived from atomic clocks. The SI second, the unit of time of the international system of units, has been defined since 1967 in terms of a hyperfine transition of the cesium atom and the best primary frequency standards now realize it with a relative uncertainty of a few parts in 1015, which makes it the most accurately measurable physical quantity. INTERNATIONAL A...

This bookmark, designed for use with U.S. Geological Survey activities at the 2nd USA Science and Engineering Festival (April 26–29, 2012), is adapted from the more detailed Fact Sheet 2010–3059 "Divisions of Geologic Time." The information that it presents is widely sought by educators and students.

The mechanisms governing the development of the Paris Basin throughout the Triassic are regarded as being the result of superimposed and successive processes. In this study, the Triassic succession of the Paris Basin was re-interpreted in a sequence stratigraphic context, using essentially wireline log data. From this, a series of isopach maps, lithofacies maps and palaeobathymetric maps was produced for each sequence. Three-dimensional accommodation analysis was then carried out sequence by sequence, over the entire basin to produce a precise, detailed accommodation history for the entire Triassic succession. Previous studies have proposed that the Triassic was deposited during a rift period in a transtensional stress regime, with the formation of a trough superposed onto three fault systems derived from the Variscan structural framework. In this study, Scythian to Ladinian sediments (Buntsandstein and Muschelkalk) record the stress regime that prevailed over much of NW Europe. The basin architecture at this time is in continuity with the neighbouring Germanic Basin. Our three-dimensional accommodation modelling shows that the stress regime changed during the Carnian and the late Norian (Keuper). The Carnian events are marked by (1) the creation of a large depocentre infilled with halite, and (2) a northwest migration of this depocentre during the mid-late Carnian along with deposition of the Grès-à-Roseaux, an extensive fluvial deposit. This documents renewed strike-slip movement along the Bray fault. The Norian events involved major tectonic uplift on the basin margins, producting fan delta progradation into the basin. Rotation of the previous depocentre axis occurs on the downthrown side of the Bray fault. This may be viewed as a consequence of sinistral strike-slip displacement along the Bray fault, forming a local transpressive stress regime. The following Liassic cycle commenced with the Rhaetic sequences and illustrates a complete change in the stress

Rift basins of the Atlantic passive margin in eastern North America are filled with thousands of meters of continental rocks termed the Newark Supergroup which provide an unprecedented opportunity to examine the fine scale structure of the Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction in continental environments. Time control, vital to the understanding of the mechanisms behind mass extinctions, is provided by lake-level cycles apparently controlled by orbitally induced climate change allowing resolution at the less than 21,000 year level. Correlation with other provinces is provided by a developing high resolution magnetostratigraphy and palynologically-based biostratigraphy. A large number of at least local vertebrate and palynomorph extinctions are concentrated around the boundary with survivors constituting the earliest Jurassic assemblages, apparently without the introduction of new taxa. The palynofloral transition is marked by the dramatic elimination of a relatively high diversity Triassic pollen assemblage with the survivors making up a Jurassic assemblage of very low diversity overwhelmingly dominated by Corollina. Based principally on palynological correlations, the hypothesis that these continental taxonomic transitions were synchronous with the massive Triassic-Jurassic marine extinctions is strongly corroborated. An extremely rapid, perhaps catastrophic, taxonomic turnover at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary, synchronous in continental and marine realms is hypothesized and discussed.

Middle and Late Triassic shelf strata in north-central Nevada comprising dominantly carbonate rocks of the Star Peak Group and overlying siliciclastic and carbonate rocks are overlain tectonically by predominantly siliciclastic basinal strata. Late Triassic slope strata are preserved in the East and Humboldt Ranges. At present, these Triassic rocks are separated from contemporaneous deposits of Utah by roughly 300 km over which time-equivalent ( ) strata are limited to a small, isolated outcrop near Currie, NV. Mesozoic and Cenozoic tectonics and widespread absence of Triassic rocks immediately to the east complicate the relation between the north-central Nevada section and Triassic rocks of southern Nevada and Utah. The gap in Triassic rocks may have resulted from erosion of intervening strata or from tectonic separation of originally contiguous stratal sequences. Some depositional facies of the shelf uniformly cover the preserved outcrop area and do not constrain the scale of the depositional system. Where facies variations are present, they suggest sediment sources to the east and north and deeper water to the west. Facies patterns, however, were influenced by local tectonics and changes in sediment source and supply. Late Triassic strata of N-C Nevada probably are the shallow-marine equivalents of fluvial and lacustrine rocks to the east. Local tectonics and changes in sediment influx require caution regarding interpretation of the original proximity of preserved stratal sequences.

The Dajianggang Formation is located in the Changchun-Yanji suture zone of central Jilin Province and unconformably overlies the Changchun-Yanji Accretionary Complex (CYAC), which is a mélange resulting from subduction of the Jiamusi-Khanka Block (JKB) beneath the North China Craton (NCC). LA-MC-ICP-MS U-Pb dating of detrital zircon from four samples of the formation yields ages of 2516 to 216 Ma. Zircons with U-Pb ages at 2516-2501 Ma and 1897-1832 Ma indicate a provenance from Precambrian basement rocks of the NCC. The 525-482 Ma ages indicate a provenance from metamorphic rocks of Late Pan-African age in the JKB that have a tectonic affinity to the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB). Zircon grains with ages of 383-314 Ma and 275-250 Ma were likely derived from the underlying CYAC. The youngest population has a peak age of ca. 225 Ma, which together with Late Triassic fossils, suggests that deposition of the Dajianggang Formation was Late Triassic or younger. This result supports the view that the final collision of the JKB and NCC along the Changchun-Yanji suture took place before the Late Triassic. Furthermore, this closure time is at least 10-20 Ma later than closure along the Solonker-Xar Moron-Changchun suture in the Late Permian. We thus establish that the Changchun-Yanji suture is not related to the collision between the Siberia Craton (SC) and the NCC but was instead related to the Paleo-Pacific plate subduction. Consequently, the Changchun-Yanji suture is not the eastward extension of the Solonker-Xar Moron-Changchun suture as previously considered, but the southern margin of the Jilin-Heilongjiang high-pressure metamorphic belt (Ji-Hei HP belt), and resulted from westward subduction of the Paleo-Pacific Ocean. Thus, the Late Triassic marked the switch in subduction from the Paleo-Asian Ocean to the Paleo-Pacific Ocean in NE China.

The Permian and Triassic were key time intervals in the history of life on Earth. Both periods are marked by a series of biotic crises including the most catastrophic of such events, the end-Permian mass extinction, which eventually led to a major turnover from typical Palaeozoic faunas and floras to those that are emblematic for the Mesozoic and Cenozoic. Here we review patterns in Permian-Triassic bony fishes, a group whose evolutionary dynamics are understudied. Based on data from primary literature, we analyse changes in their taxonomic diversity and body size (as a proxy for trophic position) and explore their response to Permian-Triassic events. Diversity and body size are investigated separately for different groups of Osteichthyes (Dipnoi, Actinistia, 'Palaeopterygii', 'Subholostei', Holostei, Teleosteomorpha), within the marine and freshwater realms and on a global scale (total diversity) as well as across palaeolatitudinal belts. Diversity is also measured for different palaeogeographical provinces. Our results suggest a general trend from low osteichthyan diversity in the Permian to higher levels in the Triassic. Diversity dynamics in the Permian are marked by a decline in freshwater taxa during the Cisuralian. An extinction event during the end-Guadalupian crisis is not evident from our data, but 'palaeopterygians' experienced a significant body size increase across the Guadalupian-Lopingian boundary and these fishes upheld their position as large, top predators from the Late Permian to the Late Triassic. Elevated turnover rates are documented at the Permian-Triassic boundary, and two distinct diversification events are noted in the wake of this biotic crisis, a first one during the Early Triassic (dipnoans, actinistians, 'palaeopterygians', 'subholosteans') and a second one during the Middle Triassic ('subholosteans', neopterygians). The origination of new, small taxa predominantly among these groups during the Middle Triassic event caused a

Conodont biostratigraphic and lithostratigraphic studies of Lower Triassic rocks in northeastern Elko County, Nevada, and adjacent parts of Idaho and Utah provide new information about regional geologic history. A sequential summary of Early Triassic events in this area follows: (1) rapid transgression of the Griesbachian sea to limiting barriers on the south (Oquirrh-Uinta axis) and west (Humboldt highland.). (2) Although the initial Triassic transgression may have persisted farther south and west than present-day evidence indicates, a period of progradation during the Dienerian limited marine sedimentation to northeastern-most Nevada and adjacent states. (3) In Smithian time, a widespread transgression spilled south and west over the earliest Triassic basin margin. (4) The southward flood is characterized by locally spectacular basal conglomerates followed by shallow marine deposits of the Thaynes Formation. (5) The transgression to the west was facilitated by tectonic removal of the restrictive barrier during the Smithian. This resulted in a slope-basin environment that accumulated a thick sequence of shale and calcareous siltstone with interbeds of turbidite conglomerates, olistostromes, and exotic blocks derived from Permian formations in northern Nevada or adjacent Idaho. (6) During a regional progradation in early Spathian time, marine conditions persisted in northeastern Nevada. (7) A final depositional episode is documented by the progressive westward spread of carbonate rocks of the Thaynes Formation. (8) Withdrawal of Triassic seas from northeast Nevada occurred post-latest Early Triassic, since a carbonate sequence of more than 300 m overlies the youngest dated interval.

Cognitive neuroscience boils down to describing the ways in which cognitive function results from brain activity. In turn, brain activity shows complex fluctuations, with structure at many spatio-temporal scales. Exactly how cognitive function inherits the physical dimensions of neural activity, though, is highly non-trivial, and so are generally the corresponding dimensions of cognitive phenomena. As for any physical phenomenon, when studying cognitive function, the first conceptual step should be that of establishing its dimensions. Here, we provide a systematic presentation of the temporal aspects of task-related brain activity, from the smallest scale of the brain imaging technique's resolution, to the observation time of a given experiment, through the characteristic timescales of the process under study. We first review some standard assumptions on the temporal scales of cognitive function. In spite of their general use, these assumptions hold true to a high degree of approximation for many cognitive (viz. fast perceptual) processes, but have their limitations for other ones (e.g., thinking or reasoning). We define in a rigorous way the temporal quantifiers of cognition at all scales, and illustrate how they qualitatively vary as a function of the properties of the cognitive process under study. We propose that each phenomenon should be approached with its own set of theoretical, methodological and analytical tools. In particular, we show that when treating cognitive processes such as thinking or reasoning, complex properties of ongoing brain activity, which can be drastically simplified when considering fast (e.g., perceptual) processes, start playing a major role, and not only characterize the temporal properties of task-related brain activity, but also determine the conditions for proper observation of the phenomena. Finally, some implications on the design of experiments, data analyses, and the choice of recording parameters are discussed. PMID:23626578

The aim of this paper is to analyse the fluvial evolution of the Lower Triassic in the western part of the Germanic Basin through time and space, as well as the impact of the geodynamic and climatic setting on the preservation of fluvial deposits. The Lower Triassic crops out only in the Vosges Massif and the Black Forest, so well-log studies are required to realise sequence stratigraphy correlations and establish comparisons with others parts of the Germanic Basin. In a first step, we use well-log data analyses to characterise the electrofacies associations in the Triassic and then define the well-log signatures of each formation. In a second step, the characterisation and recognition of genetic sequences and their stacking pattern allow us to define seven minor cycles integrated into two major cycles. Finally, the quantification of the lithologies at different stages of basin evolution leads to the reconstruction of paleoenvironmental maps to illustrate facies evolution through space and time. A comparison with cycles defined in the Germanic Basin allows us to propose correlations of the Lower Triassic on either side of the Rhine Graben and leads to a discussion of the evolution of fluvial systems through time and space. During the Scythian, the fluvial style is characterised by braided fluvial systems evolving laterally into lake deposits towards the central part of the Germanic Basin. During this stage, the basin was a huge depression with very few marine connections in its extreme eastern part. The stratigraphic cycles represent rhythmic fluctuations in relative lake level that could be attributed to sediment supply and/or lake level variations in an arid setting. Four minor stratigraphic cycles are observed that are integrated within a single major stratigraphic cycle. During the period of the stratigraphic base-level rise of the major cycle, a maximum of 233 m of sediment would represent a duration of sedimentation in the Paris Basin of at least 1.8 m

In order to better understand the paleogeographic position of the Baoshan Terrane in the northernmost part of the Sibumasu Block during formation of the Pangea supercontinent, a paleomagnetic study has been conducted on Late Triassic basaltic lavas from the southern part of the Baoshan Terrane in the West Yunnan region of Southwest China. Following detailed rock magnetic investigations and progressive thermal demagnetization, stable characteristic remanent magnetizations (ChRMs) were successfully isolated from Late Triassic Niuhetang lava flows. The ChRMs are of dual polarity and pass fold and reversal tests with magnetic carriers dominated by magnetite and subordinate oxidation-induced hematite; we thus interpret them as a primary remanence. This new paleomagnetic result indicates that the Baoshan Terrane was located at low paleolatitudes of ∼15°N in the Northern Hemisphere during Late Triassictimes. Together with available paleomagnetic data from the Baoshan Terrane and surrounding areas, a wider paleomagnetic comparison supports the view that the East Paleotethys Ocean separated the Sibumasu and Indochina blocks and closed no later than Late Triassictimes. We argue that the currently approximately north-to-south directed Changning-Menglian suture zone is very likely to have been oriented nearly east-to-west at the time of the Sibumasu-Indochina collision.

Studied region is situated in western Chukotka, in Northeast Russia. We examine the part of Chukotka microplate, the key element in the evolution of the Amerasian basin. The Triassic of Chukotka is represented by up to 5 km of deposits. Triassic terrigeneous deposits consist of three different complexes: Lower-Middle Triassic, Upper Triassic Carnian, and Norian. All the complexes are represented by rhythmic intercalation of sandstones, siltstones and mudstones. Clastic material was carried by large rivers, possessing large reservoir on neighbouring continent. Progradation of delta system in deeper regions is observed. During the Triassic, sedimentation was represented by continental slope progradation. Petrographic study of mineral composition has established the sandstones as graywackes and lithic arenites, according to Pettijohn classification (1981). Sandstones with clasts of rock fragments of lower metamorphic grade rocks dominate at the base of Triassic deposits, sandstones with fragments of higher grade metamorphic rocks dominate in the Later Triassic deposits. This different shows that the Triassic represents an unroofing sequence sours of erosional processes that produced the clastic material eroded more deeply buried rocks through time. Detrital zircons from Triassic sedimentary rocks were collected for constain its paleogeographic links to source terranes. Zircons populations from these three samples are very similar, and youngest zircon ages show peaks at 236-255 Ma. Besides, we are dating the 9 samples for K-Ar and Rb-Sr methods. Data are similar and show 200-204 Ma, and we suppose that this isotopic data indicate the age of first stage of deformation in Chukotka's basin. The Jurassic-Cretaceous of Chukotka is represented by up to 3 km of deposits. The sedimentary complexes are enriched by organic matter, and fresh clastic materials. Fragments of shales, sometimes laminated or cleaved are their indicator constituents. Sandstones are arkosic. The

Although the Late Triassic was a time of widespread aridity, evidence exists for a significant increase in rainfall during the middle to late Carnian. Upper Triassic playa-lake sediments were interrupted by late Carnian fluviatile sandstones with erosive bases and high kao-linite/illite ratios. There was also an increase in the clastic component of marine sequences during this interval. Middle and upper Carnian marine carbonates show an extreme depletion in δ13C values, consistent with increased fresh-water influx. Large-scale karstic phenomena in limestone areas subaerially exposed during the Late Triassic are a further indication of increased rainfall. Important faunal and floral changes occurred during the Carnian-Norian interval; marine invertebrate turnover was greatest at the lower/middle Carnian boundary, and terrestrial extinctions were concentrated at the Carnian/Norian boundary. The cause of this Carnian pluvial episode may have been related to the rifting of Pangea, through disruption of atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns, eustatic changes, or the effects of volcanism associated with rifting. A change in surface ocean temperature, salinity or pH, or habitat loss may have caused the decline of many shallow-marine invertebrates at the start of the middle Carnian; a return to arid conditions at the Carnian/Norian boundary would account for the turnover among terrestrial vertebrates and plants.

On the basis of comprehensive investigations of the Upper Permian and Triassic sequences of the Arabian platform, three stages were recognized, corresponding to distinct time intervals. The first stage corresponds to the Latest Permian-Early Triassic, the second - to the Early-Middle Triassic, the third - to the Late Triassic. Special maps were plotted for the second and third stages, reflecting major paleogeographic and paleotectonic events. An effort was made to test the oil potential of the sequences.

The Dabieshan massif is famous as a portion of the world's largest HP-UHP metamorphic belt in east-central China that was built by the Triassic North-South China collision. The central domain of the Dabieshan massif is occupied by a huge migmatite-cored dome [i.e., the central Dabieshan dome (CDD)]. Origin of this domal structure remains controversial. Synthesizing previous and our new structural and geochronological data, we define the Cretaceous Dabieshan as an orogen-scale metamorphic core complex (MCC) with a multistage history. Onset of lithospheric extension in the Dabieshan area occurred as early as the commencement of crustal anatexis at the earliest Cretaceous (ca. 145 Ma), which was followed by primary (early-stage) detachment during 142-130 Ma. The central Dabieshan complex in the footwall and surrounding detachment faults recorded a consistently top-to-the-NW shearing. It is thus inferred that the primary detachment was initiated from a flat-lying detachment zone at the middle crust level. Removal of the orogenic root by delamination at ca. 130 Ma came into the extensional climax, and subsequently isostatic rebound resulted in rapid doming. Along with exhumation of the footwall, the mid-crustal detachment zone had been warped as shear zones around the CDD. After 120 Ma, the detachment system probably experienced a migration accommodated to the crustal adjustment, which led to secondary (late-stage) detachment with localized ductile shearing at ca. 110 Ma. The migmatite-gneiss with HP/UHP relicts in the CDD (i.e., the central Dabieshan complex) was product of the Cretaceous crustal anatexis that consumed the deep-seated part of the HP-UHP slices and the underlying para-autochthonous basement. Compared with the contemporaneous MCCs widely developed along the eastern margin of the Eurasian continent, we proposed that occurrence of the Dabieshan MCC shares the same tectonic setting as the "destruction of the North China craton". However, geodynamic trigger

, Osmium, Carbon and Oxygen stratigraphy, the Cryogenian period, history of the plants, hominid prehistory, and last but not least the Anthropocene. The Cambrian Period is radically improved with 10 standard stages and detailed trilobite biochronology. Ordovician now has a stable international stages and graptolites scale. The integration of a refined 100 and 400 ka sedimentary cycles scale and a truly high-resolution U/Pb ages scale for the Mississippian is a major step towards the global Carboniferous GTS. The Devonian GTS leaves to be desired with lack of firm definitions for its upper boundary, and the long Emsian stage; it also lacks age dates. Its stages scaling is disputed. The Rhaetian and Norian stages in the Triassic and the Berriasian stage in the Cretaceous urgently require lower boundary definitions, and also boundary age dates. The single ~400 ka eccentricity component is very stable and can extend orbital tuning from the Cenozoic well into the Mesozoic portion of the GTS. Jurassic and Cretaceous now have long orbitally tuned segments. A completely astronomical-tuned Geological TimeScale (AGTS) for the Cenozoic is within reach showing unprecedented accuracy, precision and resolution. Burdigalian in the Miocene, and Lutetian, Bartonian and Priabonian stages in the Eocene still require formal definition. The K/T boundary will become about 0.5 ± 0.1 Ma older. After 25 years of research and authorship in the GTS it behoves me to especially thank my colleagues James Ogg, Frits Agterberg, John McArthur and Roger Cooper for longstanding collaboration. As a final note I urge construction of more regional timescales(like developed ‘down under') calibrated to the standard global GTS, to scale regional rock units.

Background Archosaurs (birds, crocodilians and their extinct relatives including dinosaurs) dominated Mesozoic continental ecosystems from the Late Triassic onwards, and still form a major component of modern ecosystems (>10,000 species). The earliest diverse archosaur faunal assemblages are known from the Middle Triassic (c. 244 Ma), implying that the archosaur radiation began in the Early Triassic (252.3–247.2 Ma). Understanding of this radiation is currently limited by the poor early fossil record of the group in terms of skeletal remains. Methodology/Principal Findings We redescribe the anatomy and stratigraphic position of the type specimen of Ctenosauriscus koeneni (Huene), a sail-backed reptile from the Early Triassic (late Olenekian) Solling Formation of northern Germany that potentially represents the oldest known archosaur. We critically discuss previous biomechanical work on the ‘sail’ of Ctenosauriscus, which is formed by a series of elongated neural spines. In addition, we describe Ctenosauriscus-like postcranial material from the earliest Middle Triassic (early Anisian) Röt Formation of Waldhaus, southwestern Germany. Finally, we review the spatial and temporal distribution of the earliest archosaur fossils and their implications for understanding the dynamics of the archosaur radiation. Conclusions/Significance Comprehensive numerical phylogenetic analyses demonstrate that both Ctenosauriscus and the Waldhaus taxon are members of a monophyletic grouping of poposauroid archosaurs, Ctenosauriscidae, characterised by greatly elongated neural spines in the posterior cervical to anterior caudal vertebrae. The earliest archosaurs, including Ctenosauriscus, appear in the body fossil record just prior to the Olenekian/Anisian boundary (c. 248 Ma), less than 5 million years after the Permian–Triassic mass extinction. These earliest archosaur assemblages are dominated by ctenosauriscids, which were broadly distributed across northern Pangea and which

Geologic time series indicate significant 100 ka and 400 ka pre-Pleistocene climate fluctuations, prior to the time of such fluctuations in Pleistocene ice sheets. The origin of these fluctuations must therefore depend on phenomena other than the ice sheets. In a previous set of experiments, we tested the sensitivity of an energy balance model to orbital insolation forcing, specifically focusing on the filtering effect of the Earth's geography. We found that in equatorial areas, the twice-yearly passage of the sun across the equator interacts with the precession index to generate 100 ka and 400 ka power in our modeled time series. The effect is proportional to the magnitude of land in equatorial regions. We suggest that such changes may reflect monsoonal variations in the real climate system, and the subsequent wind and weathering changes may transfer some of this signal to the marine record. A comparison with observed fluctuations of Triassic lake levels is quite favorable. A number of problems remain to be studied or clarified: (1) the EBM experiments need to be followed up by a limited number of GCM experiments; (2) the sensitivity to secular changes in orbital forcing needs to be examined; (3) the possible modifying role of sedimentary processes on geologic time series warrants considerably more study; (4) the effect of tectonic changes on Earth's rotation rate needs to be studied; and (5) astronomers need to make explicit which of their predictions are robust and geologists and astronomers have to agree on which of the predictions are most testable in the geologic record.

Item response theory (IRT) methods are generally used to create score scales for large-scale tests. Research has shown that IRT scales are stable across groups and over time. Most studies have focused on items that are dichotomously scored. Now Rasch and other IRT models are used to create scales for tests that include polytomously scored items.…

As motivation for the symposium on extended-scale atomistic methods, I briefly discuss the timescale problem that plagues molecular dynamics simulations, some promising recent developments for circumventing the problem, and some remaining challenges.

A comparison of the modern condition with the Permian-Triassic Boundary (PTB) times was made to estimate how severe the modern biotic crisis is. About the global changes, the two periods are correlative in carbon dioxide concentration and carbon isotope negative excursion, UV strengthening, temperature increase, ocean acidification, and weathering enhancement. The following tendencies of biotic crises are also correlative: acceleration of extinction rates accompanied by parabolic curve of extinction with a turning interval representing the critical crisis; decline of the three main ecosystems: reefs, tropical rain forests and marine phytoplankton. It is also interesting to note that certain leading organism in both periods undergo accelerated evolution during the crisis. The comparison shows that the modern crisis is about at the turning point from decline to decimation. The extinction curve is now parabolic, and the extinction rate has been accelerated, but the decimation is not yet in real. This is also justified by the modern situation of the three main ecosystems. Modern biotic decline may worsen into decimation and mass extinction but may also get better and recover to ordinary evolution. Since human activities are the main cause of the deterioration of environments and organisms, mankind should be responsible and able to strive for the recovery of the crisis. For the future of mankind, Homo sapiens may become extinct, i.e., disappear without leaving descendants, or evolve into a new and more advanced species, i.e., disappear but leave descendants. For a better future, mankind should be conscious of the facing danger and act as a whole to save biodiversity and harmonize with the environments.

The basic timescales are presented: International Atomic Time, Universal Time, and Universal Time (Coordinated). These scales must be maintained in order to satisfy specific requirements. It is shown how they are obtained and made available at a very high level of precision.

KPW is a timescale algorithm that combines Kalman filtering with the basic timescale equation (BTSE). A single Kalman filter that estimates all clocks simultaneously is used to generate the BTSE frequency estimates, while the BTSE weights are inversely proportional to the white FM variances of the clocks. Results from simulated clock ensembles are compared to previous simulation results from other algorithms.

Several methods are discussed for integrating the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations in tokamak systems on other than the fastest timescale. The dynamical grid method for simulating ideal MHD instabilities utilizes a natural nonorthogonal time-dependent coordinate transformation based on the magnetic field lines. The coordinate transformation is chosen to be free of the fast timescale motion itself, and to yield a relatively simple scalar equation for the total pressure, P = p + B/sup 2//2..mu../sub 0/, which can be integrated implicitly to average over the fast timescale oscillations. Two methods are described for the resistive timescale. The zero-mass method uses a reduced set of two-fluid transport equations obtained by expanding in the inverse magnetic Reynolds number, and in the small ratio of perpendicular to parallel mobilities and thermal conductivities. The momentum equation becomes a constraint equation that forces the pressure and magnetic fields and currents to remain in force balance equilibrium as they evolve. The large mass method artificially scales up the ion mass and viscosity, thereby reducing the severe timescale disparity between wavelike and diffusionlike phenomena, but not changing the resistive timescale behavior. Other methods addressing the intermediate timescales are discussed.

The quasifission process arises from the hindrance of the complete fusion process when heavy-ion beams are used. The strong dissipation in the system tends to prevent fusion and lead the system towards reseparation into two final products of similar mass reminiscent of a fission process. This dissipation slows down the mass transfer and shape transformation and allows for the emission of high energy {gamma}-rays during the process, albeit with a low probability. Giant Dipole {gamma} rays emitted during this time have a characteristic spectral shape and may thus be discerned in the presence of a background of {gamma} rays emitted from the final fission-like fragments. Since the rate of GDR {gamma} emission is very well established, the strength of this component may therefore be used to measure the timescale of the quasifission process. In this experiment we studied the reaction between 368-MeV {sup 58}Ni and a {sup 165}Ho target, where deep inelastic scattering and quasifission processes are dominant. Coincidences between fission fragments (detected in four position-sensitive avalanche detectors) and high energy {gamma} rays (measured in a 10{close_quotes} x 10{close_quotes} actively shielded NaI detector) were registered. Beams were provided by the Stony Brook Superconducting Linac. The {gamma}-ray spectrum associated with deep inelastic scattering events is well reproduced by statistical cooling of projectile and target-like fragments with close to equal initial excitation energy sharing. The y spectrum associated with quasifission events is well described by statistical emission from the fission fragments alone, with only weak evidence for GDR emission from the mono-nucleus. A 1{sigma} limit of t{sub ss} < 11 x 10{sup -21} s is obtained for the mono-nucleus lifetime, which is consistent with the lifetime obtained from quasifission fragment angular distributions. A manuscript was accepted for publication.

We celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication of the Vine-Matthews/Morley-Larochelle hypothesis (Vine and Matthews, Nature, 1963, v. 199, #4897, p. 947-949), which integrated marine magnetic anomaly data with a rapidly evolving terrestrial-based geomagnetic polarity timescale (GPTS). The five decades of research since 1963 have witnessed the expansion and refinement of the GPTS, to the point where ages of magnetochron boundaries, in particular in the Cenozoic, can be estimated with uncertainties better than 0.1%. This has come about by integrating high precision geochronology, cyclostratigraphy at different timescales, and magnetic polarity data of increased quality, allowing extension of the GPTS back into the Paleozoic. The definition of a high resolution GPTS across time intervals of major events in Earth history has been of particular interest, as a specific magnetochron boundary correlated across several localities represents a singular global datum. A prime example is the end Permian, when some 80 percent of genus-level extinctions and a range of 75 to 96 percent species- level extinctions took place in the marine environment, depending upon clade. Much our understanding of the Permian-Triassic boundary (PTB) is based on relatively slowly deposited marine sequences in Europe and Asia, yet a growing body of observations from continental sequences demonstrates a similar extinction event and new polarity data from some of these sequences are critical to refining the GPTS across the PTB and testing synchronicity of marine and terrestrial events. The data show that the end-Permian ecological crisis and the conodont calibrated biostratigraphic PTB both followed a key polarity reversal between a short interval (subchron) of reverse polarity to a considerably longer (chron) of normal polarity. Central European Basin strata (continental Permian and epicontinental Triassic) yield high-quality magnetic polarity stratigraphic records (Szurlies et al., 2003

Scaling laws are derived for the one-dimensional time-dependent Euler equations that describe the evolution of a spherically symmetric stellar atmosphere. With these scaling laws the results of the time-dependent calculations by Korevaar (1989) obtained for one star are applicable over the whole Hertzsprung-Russell diagram and even to elliptic galaxies. The scaling is exact for stars with the same M/R-ratio and a good approximation for stars with a different M/R-ratio. The global relaxation oscillation found by Korevaar (1989) is scaled to main sequence stars, a solar coronal hole, cool giants and elliptic galaxies.

In this work we devise a classification of mouse activity patterns based on accelerometer data using Detrended Fluctuation Analysis. We use two characteristic mouse behavioural states as benchmarks in this study: waking in free activity and slow-wave sleep (SWS). In both situations we find roughly the same pattern: for short time intervals we observe high correlation in activity - a typical 1/f complex pattern - while for large time intervals there is anti-correlation. High correlation of short intervals ( to : waking state and to : SWS) is related to highly coordinated muscle activity. In the waking state we associate high correlation both to muscle activity and to mouse stereotyped movements (grooming, waking, etc.). On the other side, the observed anti-correlation over large timescales ( to : waking state and to : SWS) during SWS appears related to a feedback autonomic response. The transition from correlated regime at short scales to an anti-correlated regime at large scales during SWS is given by the respiratory cycle interval, while during the waking state this transition occurs at the timescale corresponding to the duration of the stereotyped mouse movements. Furthermore, we find that the waking state is characterized by longer timescales than SWS and by a softer transition from correlation to anti-correlation. Moreover, this soft transition in the waking state encompass a behavioural timescale window that gives rise to a multifractal pattern. We believe that the observed multifractality in mouse activity is formed by the integration of several stereotyped movements each one with a characteristic time correlation. Finally, we compare scaling properties of body acceleration fluctuation time series during sleep and wake periods for healthy mice. Interestingly, differences between sleep and wake in the scaling exponents are comparable to previous works regarding human heartbeat. Complementarily, the nature of these sleep-wake dynamics could lead to a better

The radiation of flowering plants in the mid-Cretaceous transformed landscapes and is widely believed to have fuelled the radiations of major groups of phytophagous insects. An excellent group to test this assertion is the scale insects (Coccomorpha: Hemiptera), with some 8,000 described Recent species and probably the most diverse fossil record of any phytophagous insect group preserved in amber. We used here a total-evidence approach (by tip-dating) employing 174 morphological characters of 73 Recent and 43 fossil taxa (48 families) and DNA sequences of three gene regions, to obtain divergence time estimates and compare the chronology of the most diverse lineage of scale insects, the neococcoid families, with the timing of the main angiosperm radiation. An estimated origin of the Coccomorpha occurred at the beginning of the Triassic, about 245 Ma [228–273], and of the neococcoids 60 million years later [210–165 Ma]. A total-evidence approach allows the integration of extinct scale insects into a phylogenetic framework, resulting in slightly younger median estimates than analyses using Recent taxa, calibrated with fossil ages only. From these estimates, we hypothesise that most major lineages of coccoids shifted from gymnosperms onto angiosperms when the latter became diverse and abundant in the mid- to Late Cretaceous. PMID:27000526

The radiation of flowering plants in the mid-Cretaceous transformed landscapes and is widely believed to have fuelled the radiations of major groups of phytophagous insects. An excellent group to test this assertion is the scale insects (Coccomorpha: Hemiptera), with some 8,000 described Recent species and probably the most diverse fossil record of any phytophagous insect group preserved in amber. We used here a total-evidence approach (by tip-dating) employing 174 morphological characters of 73 Recent and 43 fossil taxa (48 families) and DNA sequences of three gene regions, to obtain divergence time estimates and compare the chronology of the most diverse lineage of scale insects, the neococcoid families, with the timing of the main angiosperm radiation. An estimated origin of the Coccomorpha occurred at the beginning of the Triassic, about 245 Ma [228-273], and of the neococcoids 60 million years later [210-165 Ma]. A total-evidence approach allows the integration of extinct scale insects into a phylogenetic framework, resulting in slightly younger median estimates than analyses using Recent taxa, calibrated with fossil ages only. From these estimates, we hypothesise that most major lineages of coccoids shifted from gymnosperms onto angiosperms when the latter became diverse and abundant in the mid- to Late Cretaceous. PMID:27000526

The end-Triassic mass extinction (~201.5 Ma), marked by major terrestrial ecosystem changes and a 50% loss in marine biodiversity, closely coincides with the onset of intensified volcanic activity in the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP), the largest igneous province on earth. The end-Triassic environmental crisis is followed by successive recovery in the early Jurassic Hettangian stage. However, accurate timing of events is poorly constrained. Here we present combined chemical and biological proxy records and field observations, covering the uppermost Triassic and lower Jurassic marine successions of St. Audrie's Bay and East Quantoxhead (UK). A floating astronomical time-scale of ~2.5 Myr has been constructed based on the recognition of ~100-kyr eccentricity cycles. Individual black shale occurrences are interpreted to reflect precession-controlled changes in monsoon intensity. Gaseous CO2 release by the increased volcanic activity strongly enhanced greenhouse warming and likely caused a shift from a diverse gymnosperm vegetation to a monotonous Cheirolepidiaceous conifer vegetation. Vegetation distribution at the Triassic-Jurassic transition was likely influenced by the strong temperature and humidity gradient from the oceans to the interior of Pangea. Vegetation cover was mostly situated in coastal regions, with the inlands being more arid. Strong eccentricity-scale paced increases in pollen concentrations suggest the inland expansion of Cheirolepidiaceous vegetation cover, which is likely caused by intensified monsoon activity. Our palynological data further shows precession-scale paced peaks in spore abundance during the mass extinction interval, suggesting astronomical forcing of the hydrological cycle under extreme climatic conditions.

In SE Yunnan, the Ailaoshan Belt has been extensively studied for the ductile shearing coeval with the left-lateral Cenozoic activity of the Red River fault. However, the Late Triassic unconformity of the continental red beds upon metamorphic and ductilely deformed rocks demonstrates that the Ailaoshan Belt was already built up by Early Mesozoic tectonics. From West to East, the belt is subdivided into Western, Central, Eastern Ailaoshan, and Jinping zones. The Western Ailaoshan and Central Ailaoshan zones correspond to a Carboniferous-Permian magmatic arc, and an ophiolitic mélange, respectively. The Eastern Ailaoshan, and the Jinping zones consist of deformed Proterozoic basement and Paleozoic to Early Triassic sedimentary cover series both belonging to the South China Block. This litho-tectonic zonation indicates that the Ailaoshan Belt developed through a SW-directed subduction followed by the collision between Indochina and South China blocks. Crustal thickening triggered per-aluminous magmatism dated at ca 247-240 Ma. Field and microscope-scale top-to-the-NE ductile shearing observed only in the pre-Late Triassic formations, but never in Late Triassic or younger formations, complies with this geodynamic polarity. Furthermore, the late collisional two-mica granitoids and felsic per-aluminous volcanites record a ductile deformation that argues for a continuing crustal shearing deformation after the Early Triassic collision up to the Middle Triassic. Therefore, a two-stage tectonic evolution accounts well for the documented structural and magmatic features. The Triassic architecture of the Ailaoshan Belt, and its geodynamic evolution, correlate well to the South and North with the North Vietnam orogens and the Jinshajiang Belt, respectively.

In the first part of the paper, I examine cases of acceleration of perception and cognition and provide my explanation of the mechanism of the effect. The explanation rests on the conception of neuronal temporal frames, or windows of simultaneity. Frames have different standard durations and yield to stretching and compressing. I suggest it to be the cause of the effect, as well as the ground for differences in perceptive timescales of living beings. In the second part, I apply the conception of temporal frames to model observation in the extended timescales that reach far beyond the temporal perceptive niche of individual living beings. Duration of a frame is taken as the basic parameter setting a particular timescale. By substituting a different frame duration, we set a hypothetical timescale and emulate observing reality in a wider or a narrower angle of embracing events in time. I discuss the status of observer in its relation to objective reality, and examine how reality does change its appearance when observed in different timescales.

In addressing the question of the timescales characteristic for the market formation, we analyze high-frequency tick-by-tick data from the NYSE and from the German market. By using returns on various timescales ranging from seconds or minutes up to 2 days, we compare magnitude of the largest eigenvalue of the correlation matrix for the same set of securities but for different timescales. For various sets of stocks of different capitalization (and the average trading frequency), we observe a significant elevation of the largest eigenvalue with increasing timescale. Our results from the correlation matrix study can be considered as a manifestation of the so-called Epps effect. There is no unique explanation of this effect and it seems that many different factors play a role here. One of such factors is randomness in transaction moments for different stocks. Another interesting conclusion to be drawn from our results is that in the contemporary markets the emergence of significant correlations occurs on timescales much smaller than in the more distant history.

In this work, we reexamine the timescale Laplace transform as defined by Bohner and Peterson [M. Bohner, A. Peterson, Dynamic Equations on TimeScales: An Introduction with Applications, Birkhauser, Boston, 2001; M. Bohner, A. Peterson, Laplace transform and Z-transform: Unification and extension, Methods Appl. Anal. 9 (1) (2002) 155-162]. In particular, we give conditions on the class of functions which have a transform, develop an inversion formula for the transform, and further, we provide a convolution for the transform. The notion of convolution leads to considering its algebraic structure--in particular the existence of an identity element--motivating the development of the Dirac delta functional on timescales. Applications and examples of these concepts are given.

The characterization of precipitation scaling regimes represents a key contribution to the improved understanding of space-time precipitation variability, which is the focus here. We conduct space-timescaling analyses of spectra and Haar fluctuations in precipitation, using three global scale precipitation products (one instrument based, one reanalysis based, one satellite and gauge based), from monthly to centennial scales and planetary down to several hundred kilometers in spatial scale. Results show the presence - similarly to other atmospheric fields - of an intermediate "macroweather" regime between the familiar weather and climate regimes: we characterize systematically the macroweather precipitation temporal and spatial, and joint space-time statistics and variability, and the outer scale limit of temporal scaling. These regimes qualitatively and quantitatively alternate in the way fluctuations vary with scale. In the macroweather regime, the fluctuations diminish with timescale (this is important for seasonal, annual, and decadal forecasts) while anthropogenic effects increase with timescale. Our approach determines the timescale at which the anthropogenic signal can be detected above the natural variability noise: the critical scale is about 20 - 40 yrs (depending on the product, on the spatial scale). This explains for example why studies that use data covering only a few decades do not easily give evidence of anthropogenic changes in precipitation, as a consequence of warming: the period is too short. Overall, while showing that precipitation can be modeled with space-timescaling processes, our results clarify the different precipitation scaling regimes and further allow us to quantify the agreement (and lack of agreement) of the precipitation products as a function of space and timescales. Moreover, this work contributes to clarify a basic problem in hydro-climatology, which is to measure precipitation trends at decadal and longer scales and to

The Permian-Triassic mass extinction, 252 Myr ago, is the most devastating global-scale event ever recorded. Ecological and environmental changes during this interval are commonly assumed to be associated with numerous perturbations (i.e. productivity changes, acidification, redox changes, eustatism) that still remain elusive. The present study focus on the relationships between the redox conditions within the water column, the successive sedimentary deposits and marine community turnovers. Our study is based on new Early Triassic sections from the western USA Basin that preserve diversified reefs and bioaccumulations that contain microbialites and various benthic and pelagic organisms (e.g. serpulids, bivalves, ostracods, gastropods, cephalopods). Such a sedimentary prisitine record provides interesting new prospects to decipher the relationships between lithology, microbial structures and the geochemistry of the water column. Three outcrops were studied: the Mineral Mountains, the Confusion Range and the Pahvant Range, that record a general transgressive trend from proximal to distal deposits during the Smithian substage. Continental to open marine conditions are deduced from sedimentological studies and are related to variations of the microbialite meso- and micro-structures over a short timescale. Hydrodynamics and bathymetry are shown to be the major parameters that influence the morphology and distribution of these microbialites. Additionally to the study of the different microbialites structures and associated depositional environments, the chemiotratigraphic record of both carbon isotopes and major elements indicate a complex and a wide range of variations at short timescale. Carbon isotopes vary from -5 to 2 ‰PDB and FeHR/FeT ratio, after iron speciation, indicate a broad range of variation between 0.1 and 1.5. On the one hand, these analyses suggest potential transient oxygen depletion within the water column. On the other hand, fluctuations of these

We investigate unsteady flow in a porous medium under time - periodic (sinusoidal) pressure gradient. DNS were performed to benchmark the analytical solution of the unsteady Darcy equation with two different expressions of the timescale : one given by a consistent volume averaging of the Navier - Stokes equation [1] with a steady state closure for the flow resistance term, another given by volume averaging of the kinetic energy equation [2] with a closure for the dissipation rate . For small and medium frequencies, the analytical solutions with the timescale obtained by the energy approach compare well with the DNS results in terms of amplitude and phase lag. For large frequencies (f > 100 [Hz]) we observe a slightly smaller damping of the amplitude. This study supports the use of the unsteady form of Darcy's equation with constant coefficients to solve time - periodic Darcy flows at low and medium frequencies. Our DNS simulations, however, indicate that the timescale predicted by the VANS approach together with a steady - state closure for the flow resistance term is too small. The one obtained by the energy approach matches the DNS results well. At large frequencies, the amplitudes deviate slightly from the analytical solution of the unsteady Darcy equation. Note that at those high frequencies, the flow amplitudes remain below 1% of those of steady state flow. This result indicates that unsteady porous media flow can approximately be described by the unsteady Darcy equation with constant coefficients for a large range of frequencies, provided, the proper timescale has been found.

Global mass extinction events are marked by a major loss of terrestrial and marine biodiversity and the global collapse of ecosystems during times of extensive volcanic activity and the emplacement of large igneous provinces (LIPs). Large-scale greenhouse gas release, initiated by volcanism, had a profound impact on global geochemical cycles (e.g. initiating strong perturbations in δ13C records). Hence, these events may be regarded as natural deep-time analogues for studying mechanistic feedbacks between rapid and large/scale greenhouse gas emissions, environmental change and biotic crises. Such studies require high resolution stratigraphic correlation between volcanic activity, disruption of global geochemical cycles and biotic crises, which at present is poorly constrained. Here we present a novel proxy that records explosive continental volcanic activity in distant marine shale sediments. The proxy builds on the relative abundance of the trace elements Lu, Hf, Y and Nb (monitored as the (Lu/ Hf)/(Y/ Nb)-ratio). We test the method on a marine sedimentary record comprising Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) volcanism and the associated end-Triassic global mass extinction, at ~201.38 Ma. We show that the onset of sharp well-defined peaks in the (Lu/ Hf)/(Y/ Nb)-ratio coincides with the end-Triassic biotic crisis. Subsequent subordinate peaks closely correspond to periods of early Jurassic biotic radiation and evolution. Large-scale volcanic activity therefore not only initiated the end-Triassic mass extinction, it possibly also actively punctuated and regulated the pace of early Jurassic evolution. Further, the proxy also records the timing of Siberian Traps volcanism relative to the end-Permian mass extinction, the largest extinction in Earth's history. Hence, this proxy for the first time allows causality studies between increased volcanic activity, disruption of global geochemical cycles and global biodiversity loss, in unprecedented stratigraphic

With the aim of constructing a Student Time Management Scale (STMS), the initial version was administered and data were collected from 523 standard eleventh students. (Mean age = 15.64). The data obtained were subjected to Reliability and Factor analysis using PASW Statistical software version 18. From 42 items 14 were dropped, resulting in the…

Permian-Triassic coals of the South African Karoo Basin play a central role in the study and interpretation of Gondwana's climate history and related vegetational changes in time and space. The palynological record of the coal-bearing formations reveals major phases of climate amelioration succeeding the Permo-Carboniferous Gondwana glaciations. Subsequent to the melting of the Dwyka ice, cold to cool-temperate climate conditions prevailed during the Early Permian and a continuous change to hot and dry climate conditions of the Late Permian and Triassic was inferred from sedimentological and palaeontological data so far. The here presented new palynological and geochemical data from the Early Triassic Molteno coal (Stormberg Group) point to a short-term switch from dry to wet climate conditions. To date, this wet intermezzo of Gondwana's early Mesozoic climate history has been overlooked in the Molteno coal of the Karoo Basin. The spore/pollen ratios, used as a proxy for humidity changes, indicate a significant climatic change corresponding to a prominent C-isotope excursion. Ongoing studies will provide a detailed palynological inventory of the Early Triassic coal deposits on an intra-Gondwanic scale, contributing to the interpretation of early Mesozoic palaeoclimates.

Advances in sequence stratigraphy and the development of depositional models have helped explain the origin of genetically related sedimentary packages during sea level cycles. These concepts have provided the basis for the recognition of sea level events in subsurface data and in outcrops of marine sediments around the world. Knowledge of these events has led to a new generation of Mesozoic and Cenozoic global cycle charts that chronicle the history of sea level fluctuations during the past 250 million years in greater detail than was possible from seismic-stratigraphic data alone. An effort has been made to develop a realistic and accurate timescale and widely applicable chronostratigraphy and to integrate depositional sequences documented in public domain outcrop sections from various basins with this chronostratigraphic framework. A description of this approach and an account of the results, illustrated by sea level cycle charts of the Cenozoic, Cretaceous, Jurassic, and Triassic intervals, are presented. PMID:17818978

Advances in sequence stratigraphy and the development of depositional models have helped explain the origin of genetically related sedimentary packages during sea level cycles. These concepts have provided the basis for the recognition of sea level events in subsurface data and in outcrops of marine sediments around the world. Knowledge of these events has led to a new generation of Mesozoic and Cenozoic global cycle charts that chronicle the history of sea level fluctuations during the past 250 million years in greater detail than was possible from seismic-stratigraphic data alone. An effort has been made to develop a realistic and accurate timescale and widely applicable chronostratigraphy and to integrate depositional sequences documented in public domain outcrop sections from various basins with this chronostratigraphic frame-work. A description of this approach and an account of the results, illustrated by sea level cycle charts of the Cenozoic, Cretaceous, Jurassic, and Triassic intervals, are presented.

Advances in sequence stratigraphy and the development of depositional models have helped explain the origin of genetically related sedimentary packages during sea level cycles. These concepts have provided the basis for the recognition of sea level events in subsurface data and in outcrops of marine sediments around the world. Knowledge of these events has led to a new generation of Mesozoic and Cenozoic global cycle charts that chronicle the history of sea level fluctuations during the past 250 million years in greater detail than was possible from seismic-stratigraphic data alone. An effort has been made to develop a realistic and accurate timescale and widely applicable chronostratigraphy and to integrate depositional sequences documented in public domain outcrop sections from various basins with this chronostratigraphic framework. A description of this approach and an account of the results, illustrated by sea level cycle charts of the Cenozoic, Cretaceous, Jurassic, and Triassic intervals, are presented.

Timescales have been constructed in different ways to meet the many demands placed upon them for time accuracy, frequency accuracy, long-term stability, and robustness. Usually, no single timescale is optimum for all purposes. In the context of the impending availability of high-accuracy intermittently-operated cesium fountains, we reconsider the question of evaluating the accuracy of timescales which use an algorithm to span interruptions of the primary standard. We consider a broad class of calibration algorithms that can be evaluated and compared quantitatively for their accuracy in the presence of frequency drift and a full noise model (a mixture of white PM, flicker PM, white FM, flicker FM, and random walk FM noise). We present the analytic techniques for computing the standard uncertainty for the full noise model and this class of calibration algorithms. The simplest algorithm is evaluated to find the average-frequency uncertainty arising from the noise of the cesium fountain's local oscillator and from the noise of a hydrogen maser transfer-standard. This algorithm and known noise sources are shown to permit interlaboratory frequency transfer with a standard uncertainty of less than 10(exp -15) for periods of 30-100 days.

Soil moisture and hydrologic fluxes at the land surface are critical to climate feedback, hydrology, and biogeochemical cycling. Soil moisture temporal and spatial variability over catchment areas affects surface and subsurface runoff, modulates evaporation and transpiration, determines the extent of groundwater recharge and contaminant transport, and initiates or sustains feedback between the land surface and the atmosphere. At a particular point in time soil moisture content is influenced by: (1) the precipitation history, (2) the texture of the soil, which determines the water-holding capacity, (3) the slope of the land surface, which affects runoff and infiltration, and (4) the vegetation and land cover, which influences evapotranspiration and deep percolation. In other terms the partitioning of soil moisture to recharge to the groundwater, evapotranspiration to the atmosphere, and surface/subsurface runoff to the streams at different spatio-temporal scales and under different hydro-climatic conditions pose one of the greatest challenges to weather and climate prediction, water resources availability, sustainability, quality, and variability in agricultural, range and forested watersheds and hydro-climatic conditions. In this context we hypothesize that: 1) soil moisture variability is dominated by soil properties at the field scale, topographic features at the catchment/watershed scale, and vegetation characteristics and precipitation patterns at the regional scale and beyond; and 2) ensemble hydrologic fluxes (evapotranspiration, infiltration, and shallow ground water recharge) across the vadose zone at the corresponding scale can be effectively represented by one or more soil, topography, vegetation, or climate scale factors. Using ground-based and various active and passive microwave remote sensing measurements during the NASA field campaigns in the past decade we test these hypotheses. Various scaling techniques for soil moisture and soil hydrologic and

Applications of transport timescales are pervasive in biological, hydrologic, and geochemical studies yet these timesscales are not consistently defined and applied with rigor in the literature. We compare three transport timescales (flushing time, age, and residence time) commonly used to measure the retention of water or scalar quantities transported with water. We identify the underlying assumptions associated with each timescale, describe procedures for computing these timescales in idealized cases, and identify pitfalls when real-world systems deviate from these idealizations. We then apply the timescale definitions to a shallow 378 ha tidal lake to illustrate how deviations between real water bodies and the idealized examples can result from: (1) non-steady flow; (2) spatial variability in bathymetry, circulation, and transport timescales; and (3) tides that introduce complexities not accounted for in the idealized cases. These examples illustrate that no single transport timescale is valid for all time periods, locations, and constituents, and no one timescale describes all transport processes. We encourage aquatic scientists to rigorously define the transport timescale when it is applied, identify the underlying assumptions in the application of that concept, and ask if those assumptions are valid in the application of that approach for computing transport timescales in real systems.

Previous statistical observations have shown that the recovery timescales of substorms occurring in the winter and near equinox (when the nighttime auroral zone was in darkness) are roughly twice as long as the recovery timescales for substorms occurring in the summer (when the nighttime auroral region was sunlit). This suggests that auroral substorms in the northern and southern hemispheres develop asymmetrically during solstice conditions with substorms lasting longer in the winter (dark) hemisphere than in the summer (sunlit) hemisphere. Additionally, this implies that more energy is deposited by electron precipitation in the winter hemisphere than in the summer one during substorms. This result, coupled with previous observations that have shown that auroral activity is more common when the ionosphere is in darkness and is suppressed when the ionosphere is in daylight, strongly suggests that the ionospheric conductivity plays an important role governing how magnetospheric energy is transferred to the ionosphere during substorms. Therefore, the ionosphere itself may dictate how much energy it will accept from the magnetosphere during substorms rather than this being an externally imposed quantity. Here, we extend our earlier work by statistically analyzing the recovery timescales for a large number of substorms observed in the conjugate hemispheres simultaneously by two orbiting global auroral imagers: Polar UVI and IMAGE FUV. Our current results are consistent with previous observations. The recovery timescales are observed to be longer in the winter (dark) hemisphere while the auroral activity has a shorter duration in the summer (sunlit) hemisphere. This leads to an asymmetric energy input from the magnetosphere to the ionosphere with more energy being deposited in the winter hemisphere than in the summer hemisphere.

We present an empirical analysis of the microstructure of financial markets and, in particular, of the static and dynamic properties of liquidity. We find that on relatively large timescales (15 min) large price fluctuations are connected to the failure of the subtle mechanism of compensation between the flows of market and limit orders: in other words, the missed revelation of the latent order book breaks the dynamical equilibrium between the flows, triggering the large price jumps. On smaller timescales (30 s), instead, the static depletion of the limit order book is an indicator of an intrinsic fragility of the system, which is related to a strongly nonlinear enhancement of the response. In order to quantify this phenomenon we introduce a measure of the liquidity imbalance present in the book and we show that it is correlated to both the sign and the magnitude of the next price movement. These findings provide a quantitative definition of the effective liquidity, which proves to be strongly dependent on the considered timescales.

The aim of this study was to identify the psycho-musical factors that govern time evaluation in Western music from baroque, classic, romantic, and modern repertoires. The excerpts were previously found to represent variability in musical properties and to induce four main categories of emotions. 48 participants (musicians and nonmusicians) freely listened to 16 musical excerpts (lasting 20 sec. each) and grouped those that seemed to have the same duration. Then, participants associated each group of excerpts to one of a set of sine wave tones varying in duration from 16 to 24 sec. Multidimensional scaling analysis generated a two-dimensional solution for these time judgments. Musical excerpts with high arousal produced an overestimation of time, and affective valence had little influence on time perception. The duration was also overestimated when tempo and loudness were higher, and to a lesser extent, timbre density. In contrast, musical tension had little influence. PMID:21853763

The paper presents the first complete magnetic polarity scale obtained for the Middle Triassic of the northern Peri-Tethys area. The Roetian and Muschelkalk deposits of southern Poland (Upper Silesia, the Holy Cross Mountains) were studied paleomagnetically. The obtained paleopole 'A' (52°N, 143°E) fits well to the Middle Triassic (ca. 240 Ma) segment of the Stable European APWP. A set of various quality characteristic directions isolated in 106 samples was used for construction of the composite polarity scale. This Peritethyan scale has been tied with conodont zonation and referred to the scale erected earlier in the Tethyan realm. Comparison of both scales indicates that the whole Roetian succession in the southern Polish basin should be correlated with the latest Olenekian. The normal marine sedimentation ceased in the Polish basin as early as in the late Fassanian time. The obtained magnetostratigraphic scale combined with the sequence stratigraphic framework enables a reliable chronological correlation of the late Olenekian-Ladinian succession over the entire Peri-Tethys Basin.

Water–biomolecule interactions have been extensively studied in dilute solutions, crystals, and rehydrated powders, but none of these model systems may capture the behavior of water in the highly organized intracellular milieu. Because of the experimental difficulty of selectively probing the structure and dynamics of water in intact cells, radically different views about the properties of cell water have proliferated. To resolve this long-standing controversy, we have measured the 2H spin relaxation rate in living bacteria cultured in D2O. The relaxation data, acquired in a wide magnetic field range (0.2 mT–12 T) and analyzed in a model-independent way, reveal water dynamics on a wide range of timescales. Contradicting the view that a substantial fraction of cell water is strongly perturbed, we find that ≈85% of cell water in Escherichia coli and in the extreme halophile Haloarcula marismortui has bulk-like dynamics. The remaining ≈15% of cell water interacts directly with biomolecular surfaces and is motionally retarded by a factor 15 ± 3 on average, corresponding to a rotational correlation time of 27 ps. This dynamic perturbation is three times larger than for small monomeric proteins in solution, a difference we attribute to secluded surface hydration sites in supramolecular assemblies. The relaxation data also show that a small fraction (≈0.1%) of cell water exchanges from buried hydration sites on the microsecond timescale, consistent with the current understanding of protein hydration in solutions and crystals. PMID:18436650

The need to describe the Earth system and its components with a quantity that has units of time is ubiquitous since the 1970s work of Bolin, Rodhe and Junge. These quantities are often used as metrics of the system to describe the duration or cumulative impact of an action, such as in global-warming and ozone-depletion potentials, as in the SPARC lifetime re-assessment. The quantity designated "lifetime" is often calculated inconsistently and/or misused when applied to the subsequent evaluations of impacts. A careful set of definitions and derivations is needed to ensure that we are reporting, publishing, and comparing the same quantities. There are many different ways to derive metrics of time, and they describe different properties of the system. Here we carefully define several of those metrics - denoted here as loss frequency, timescale, and lifetime - and demonstrate which properties of the system they describe. Three generalizable examples demonstrate (i) how the non-linear chemistry of tropospheric ozone makes simple approaches for tracking pollution in error; (ii) why the lifetime of a gas depends on the history of emissions, and (iii) when multiple reservoirs generate timescales quite separate from the traditionally defined lifetime. Proper use of the many "time" parameters in a system, however, gives a very powerful understanding of the response to anthropogenic perturbations.

Plate reconstructions based on hierarchical spherical rotations have been around for many years. For the breakup of Pangea and Gondwana, these reconstructions are based on two major sources: magnetic isochrons and geological evidence for the onset of rifting and the tightness of the fit between continents. These reconstructions imply spreading velocities and it is the changes in velocities that can be used to probe questions of the forces moving plates around. In order to calculate the velocities correctly though, the importance of the choice of geologic timescale is often ignored. In this talk, we focus on the South Atlantic and calculate the spreading velocity errors implied by the choice of timescale for three major epochs: the Cenozoic and Late Mesozoic, the Cretaceous Quiet Zone and the Late Cretaceous to the Early Jurassic. In addition, we report the spreading velocities implied through these phases by various available magnetic isochron-derived reconstructions and the geological fits for South America and Africa used by large scale global reconstruction as well as in recent papers. Finally, we will highlight the implications for the choice of the mantle reference frame on African plate velocities.

Markovian dynamics on complex reaction networks are one of the most intriguing subjects in a wide range of research fields including chemical reactions, biological physics, and ecology. To represent the global kinetics from one node (corresponding to a basin on an energy landscape) to another requires information on multiple pathways that directly or indirectly connect these two nodes through the entire network. In this paper we present a scheme to extract a hierarchical set of global transition states (TSs) over a discrete-time Markov chain derived from first-order rate equations. The TSs can naturally take into account the multiple pathways connecting any pair of nodes. We also propose a new type of disconnectivity graph (DG) to capture the hierarchical organization of different timescales of reactions that can capture changes in the network due to changes in the timescale of observation. The crux is the introduction of the minimum conductance cut (MCC) in graph clustering, corresponding to the dividing surface across the network having the "smallest" transition probability between two disjoint subnetworks (superbasins on the energy landscape) in the network. We present a new combinatorial search algorithm for finding this MCC. We apply our method to a reaction network of Claisen rearrangement of allyl vinyl ether that consists of 23 nodes and 66 links (saddles on the energy landscape) connecting them. We compare the kinetic properties of our DG to those of the transition matrix of the rate equations and show that our graph can properly reveal the hierarchical organization of timescales in a network. PMID:26641663

The notion of extended self-similarity (ESS) is applied here for the X - component time series of geomagnetic field fluctuations. Plotting nth order structure functions against the fourth order structure function we show that low-frequency geomagnetic fluctuations up to the order n = 10 follow the same scaling laws as MHD fluctuations in solar wind, however, for higher frequencies (f > l/5[h]) a clear departure from the expected universality is observed for n > 6. ESS does not allow to make an unambiguous statement about the non triviality of scaling laws in "geomagnetic" turbulence. However, we suggest to use higher order moments as promising diagnostic tools for mapping the contributions of various remote magnetospheric sources to local observatory data. Copyright 1998 by the American Geophysical Union.

Mesozoic cyclostratigraphy from around the world is being assessed to construct a continuous Astronomical TimeScale (ATS) based on Earth’s cyclic orbital parameters. The recognition of a prevalent sedimentary cycling with a ~400-kyr period associated with forcing by the stable 405-kyr orbital eccentricity variation is an important development. Numerous formations spanning 10 to 20 myr (and longer) intervals in the Cretaceous, Jurassic and Triassic clearly express this dominant cycle and provide a robust basis for 405-kyr-scale calibration of the ATS. This 405-kyr metronome will enable extension of the well-defined Cenozoic ATS for scaling of the past quarter-billion years of Earth history. This astronomical calibration has a resolution comparable to the 1% to 0.1% precision for radioisotope dating of Mesozoic ash beds, with the added benefit of providing continuous stratigraphic coverage between dated beds. Extended portions of the Mesozoic ATS have already provided new insights into long-standing geologic problems of seafloor spreading, tectonics, eustasy, and paleoclimate change. Ongoing work is focused on closing gaps in coverage and on collecting duplicate cyclostratigraphic records for the entire Mesozoic Era.

The Triassic Period (252.2-201.6 Ma) is bracketed by two mass extinctions, witnessed the evolution of the major groups of modern tetrapods, saw giant bolide impacts, and was typified by generally high atmospheric CO2 and a lack of ice at the poles. Testing hypotheses relevant to these major features of the Triassic, as well as problems related to the Earth system in general, requires temporally well-defined records of environmental and biotic change, especially in terrestrial environments, which until recently were lacking. The NSF and ICDP funded ~500 m long core at Petrified Forest National Park, scheduled to be drilled in Fall, 2013, is part of an interdisciplinary, multi-institutional, Colorado Plateau Coring Project, and is a major step towards providing a network of such records. The core will recover virtually the entire pre-Owl-Rock-Member Late Triassic age Chinle and underlying Early-Middle Triassic age Moenkopi formations. A core is required despite excellent outcrop and a long and distinguished history of study because of ambiguities in local correlation, a lack of constraints on the temporal duration and resolution of biotic events, and an inability to make clear global correlations. Specifically, by integrating a densely sampled paleomagnetic record with high-resolution radioisotopic ages in unquestioned superposition, the new core will allow us to test at least five sets of hypotheses: (1) were marine and continental biotic turnover events in the Late Triassic coupled? (2) was there high faunal provinciality during the existence of the supercontinent of Pangea?; (3) is the timescale of the Newark basin astronomically calibrated GPTS for the Triassic accurate, particularly for the Norian age part that is relevant for mapping the chaotic evolution of the Solar System, as well as global correlations?; (4) is the supposed Carnian-Norian boundary in the Chinle actually a late middle Norian extinction coinciding with the 215.5 Ma Manicouagan impact?; (5

Semiperipheral collisions in the {sup 124}Sn+{sup 64}Ni reaction at 35 MeV/nucleon were studied using the forward part of the Charged Heavy Ion Mass and Energy Resolving Array. Nearly completely determined ternary events involving projectilelike fragments (PLF), targetlike fragments (TLF), and intermediate mass fragments (IMF) were selected. A new method of studying the reaction mechanism, focusing on the analysis of the correlations between relative velocities in the IMF+PLF and IMF+TLF subsystems, is proposed. The relative velocity correlations provide information on the time sequence and timescale of the neck fragmentation processes leading to production of IMFs. It is shown that the majority of light IMFs are produced within 40-80 fm/c after the system starts to reseparate. Heavy IMFs are formed at times of about 120 fm/c or later and can be viewed as resulting from two-step (sequential) neck rupture processes.

Accelerated biotic turnover during the Late Triassic has led to the perception of an end-Triassic mass extinction event, now regarded as one of the "big five" extinctions. Close examination of the fossil record reveals that many groups thought to be affected severely by this event, such as ammonoids, bivalves and conodonts, instead were in decline throughout the Late Triassic, and that other groups were relatively unaffected or subject to only regional effects. Explanations for the biotic turnover have included both gradualistic and catastrophic mechanisms. Regression during the Rhaetian, with consequent habitat loss, is compatible with the disappearance of some marine faunal groups, but may be regional, not global in scale, and cannot explain apparent synchronous decline in the terrestrial realm. Gradual, widespread aridification of the Pangaean supercontinent could explain a decline in terrestrial diversity during the Late Triassic. Although evidence for an impact precisely at the boundary is lacking, the presence of impact structures with Late Triassic ages suggests the possibility of bolide impact-induced environmental degradation prior to the end-Triassic. Widespread eruptions of flood basalts of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) were synchronous with or slightly postdate the system boundary; emissions of CO2 and SO2 during these eruptions were substantial, but the contradictory evidence for the environmental effects of outgassing of these lavas remains to be resolved. A substantial excursion in the marine carbon-isotope record of both carbonate and organic matter suggests a significant disturbance of the global carbon cycle at the system boundary. Release of methane hydrates from seafloor sediments is a possible cause for this isotope excursion, although the triggering mechanism and climatic effects of such a release remain uncertain. ?? 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The coupling of intense laser light with plasmas is a rich field of plasma physics, with many applications. Among these are inertial confinement fusion (ICF), x-ray lasers, particle acceleration, and x-ray sources. Parametric instabilities have been studied for many years because of their importance to ICF; with laser pulses with duration of approximately a nanosecond, and laser intensities in the range 10{sup 14}--10{sup 15}W/cm{sup 2} these instabilities are of crucial concern because of a number of detrimental effects. Although the laser pulse duration of interest for these studies are relatively long, it has been evident in the past years that to reach an understanding of these instabilities requires their characterization and analysis in picosecond timescales. At the laser intensities of interest, the growth rate for stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) is of the order of picoseconds, and of an order of magnitude shorter for stimulated Raman scattering (SRS). In this paper the authors discuss SBS and SRS in the context of their evolution in picosecond timescales. They describe the fundamental concepts associated with their growth and saturation, and recent work on the nonlinear treatment required for the modeling of these instabilities at high laser intensities.

NW Pangea records a complex history of recurrent development of anoxia through the Permo-Triassic Biotic Crises. The Early Triassic record from the Smithian strato-type in the Sverdrup Basin, as well as for the more open ocean setting of Svalbard, have organic carbon isotope records that closely correspond to major fluctuations in the inorganic carbon records from the Tethys, demonstrating truly global perturbations of the carbon cycle occurred during this time. Geochemical proxies for anoxia are strongly correlated with carbon isotopes, whereby negative shifts in ?13Corg are associated with shifts to more anoxic to euxinic conditions, and positive shifts are related to return to more oxic conditions. Rather than a delayed or prolonged recovery, the Early Triassic is characterized better by a series of aborted biotic recoveries related to shifts back to ocean anoxia, potentially driven by recurrent volcanism.

The reconstruction of paleosurfaces represents a unique tool to access the evolution of ancient continents. Paleosurfaces contribute to the study of global changes through paleoweathering features/profiles and record uplift and subsidence of the ancient continents driven by crustal geodynamics and plate tectonics. However, age constraints for basement paleosurfaces are often difficult to obtain since the geological record of ancient land surfaces is usually limited, fragmented by unconformities and scrambled by successive superimposed evolutions, leaving a patchwork of relict landforms and weathering products, discontinuous over time and space. The crystalline basement of European Paleozoic massifs, consisting of igneous and metamorphic rocks, often show Permo-Triassic overprints resulting in underestimated age determinations. These remagnetisations are ubiquitous [e.g. Edel & Schneider, 1995], affecting many emerged Paleozoic rocks in Europe. The rejuvenated age estimations are attributed to an alteration of the primary paleomagnetic signal and carried by secondary hematite [Ricordel et al., 2007; Preeden et al., 2009; Preeden, 2009]. Moreover, published paleomagnetic ages [Ricordel et al., 2007] showed a strong relationship between the remagnetization and the development of pinkish-red crystalline facies associated to the albitized underlying rocks of the Morvan Massif (France). Parcerisa et al. [2009] performed further field and petrographic analyses and proposed that the albitization was linked to the precipitation of secondary haematite. Since hematite forms under oxidising conditions one may deduce that the remagnetization occurring in the Paleozoic crystalline rocks formed during the exposure of these rocks at the Permo-Triassic (paleo)surface. The extent of the altered zone (~200 m in depth) points to a sodium enriched groundwater environment [Thiry et al., 2009]. Demonstrating that the albitized facies are of supergenic origin and bound to the Triassic

The end-Triassic is the least studied of the five major episodes of mass extinction recognized in the Phanerozoic, and the Triassic-Jurassic boundary is not precisely defined in most parts of the world, with a paucity of good marine sections and an insufficiency of biostratigraphically valuable fossils. Despite these limitations it is clear that there was a significant episode of mass extinction, affecting many groups, in the Late Norian and the existing facts are consistent with it having taken place at the very end of the period. The best record globally comes from marine strata. There was an almost complete turnover of ammonites across the T-J boundary, with perhaps no more than one genus surviving. About half the bivalve genera and most of the species went extinct, as did many archaeogastropods. Many Paleozoic-dominant brachiopods also disappeared, as did the last of the conodonts. There was a major collapse and disappearance of the Alpine calcareous sponge. Among terrestrial biota, a significant extinction event involving tetrapods was recognized. With regard to possible environmental events that may be postulated to account for the extinctions, there is no evidence of any significant global change of climate at this time. The existence of the large Manicouagan crater in Quebec, dated as about late or end-Triassic, has led to the suggestion that an impact event might be implicated, but so far despite intensive search no unequivocal iridium anomaly or shocked quartz was discovered. On the other hand there is strong evidence for significant marine regression in many parts of the world. It is proposed therefore that the likeliest cause of the marine extinctions is severe reduction in habitat area caused either by regression of epicontinental seas, subsequent widespread anoxia during the succeeding transgression, or a combination of the two.

Carbon-isotope analysis of fossil plant material from a Polish core provides new evidence of a perturbation to the atmospheric carbon-cycle at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary (~201 Ma). The Triassic-Jurassic boundary was a time of extreme climate change which also coincided with the end-Triassic mass extinction. The new data will allow us to identify climatic changes in the Polish Basin across the Triassic-Jurassic boundary and evaluate these changes on a broader scale by comparison to data from other sites located around the world. The Niekłan borehole core, located in the southern Polish Basin, provides a ~200 metre-long terrestrial record spanning the Rhaetian and Hettangian, including the Triassic-Jurassic boundary (~208-199 Ma). The Niekłan core consists of interbedded fluvial and lacustrine sediments containing preserved plant material and thus provides an excellent opportunity to study both terrestrial palaeoenvironmental changes in the Polish Basin and perturbations in the carbon-cycle more broadly. Carbon-isotope analysis of macrofossil plant material and microscopic woody phytoclasts from the Niekłan core reveals a negative carbon-isotope excursion (CIE) of ~-3‰ at the end of the Rhaetian, before a gradual return to more positive values thereafter. The negative CIE suggests an injection of isotopically-light carbon into the atmosphere occurred just before the Triassic-Jurassic boundary. Likely sources of this carbon include volcanogenic gases, methane released from gas hydrates, or a combination of the two. The negative CIE seen in plant material at Niekłan is also recorded in a variety of geological materials from contemporaneous sites world-wide. These time-equivalent, but geographically separated, records indicate that the negative CIE recorded in the Niekłan plant material is the result of a regional or global carbon-cycle perturbation and is not merely a local signal. Future work will focus on using a range of palaeoenvironmental proxies in

This special issue of Metrologia presents selected papers from the Fifth International TimeScale Algorithm Symposium (VITSAS), including some of the tutorials presented on the first day. The symposium was attended by 76 persons, from every continent except Antarctica, by students as well as senior scientists, and hosted by the Real Instituto y Observatorio de la Armada (ROA) in San Fernando, Spain, whose staff further enhanced their nation's high reputation for hospitality. Although a timescale can be simply defined as a weighted average of clocks, whose purpose is to measure time better than any individual clock, timescale theory has long been and continues to be a vibrant field of research that has both followed and helped to create advances in the art of timekeeping. There is no perfect timescale algorithm, because every one embodies a compromise involving user needs. Some users wish to generate a constant frequency, perhaps not necessarily one that is well-defined with respect to the definition of a second. Other users might want a clock which is as close to UTC or a particular reference clock as possible, or perhaps wish to minimize the maximum variation from that standard. In contrast to the steered timescales that would be required by those users, other users may need free-running timescales, which are independent of external information. While no algorithm can meet all these needs, every algorithm can benefit from some form of tuning. The optimal tuning, and even the optimal algorithm, can depend on the noise characteristics of the frequency standards, or of their comparison systems, the most precise and accurate of which are currently Two Way Satellite Time and Frequency Transfer (TWSTFT) and GPS carrier phase time transfer. The interest in timescale algorithms and its associated statistical methodology began around 40 years ago when the Allan variance appeared and when the metrological institutions started realizing ensemble atomic time using more than

This special issue of Metrologia presents selected papers from the Fifth International TimeScale Algorithm Symposium (VITSAS), including some of the tutorials presented on the first day. The symposium was attended by 76 persons, from every continent except Antarctica, by students as well as senior scientists, and hosted by the Real Instituto y Observatorio de la Armada (ROA) in San Fernando, Spain, whose staff further enhanced their nation's high reputation for hospitality. Although a timescale can be simply defined as a weighted average of clocks, whose purpose is to measure time better than any individual clock, timescale theory has long been and continues to be a vibrant field of research that has both followed and helped to create advances in the art of timekeeping. There is no perfect timescale algorithm, because every one embodies a compromise involving user needs. Some users wish to generate a constant frequency, perhaps not necessarily one that is well-defined with respect to the definition of a second. Other users might want a clock which is as close to UTC or a particular reference clock as possible, or perhaps wish to minimize the maximum variation from that standard. In contrast to the steered timescales that would be required by those users, other users may need free-running timescales, which are independent of external information. While no algorithm can meet all these needs, every algorithm can benefit from some form of tuning. The optimal tuning, and even the optimal algorithm, can depend on the noise characteristics of the frequency standards, or of their comparison systems, the most precise and accurate of which are currently Two Way Satellite Time and Frequency Transfer (TWSTFT) and GPS carrier phase time transfer. The interest in timescale algorithms and its associated statistical methodology began around 40 years ago when the Allan variance appeared and when the metrological institutions started realizing ensemble atomic time using more than

In 2009 our center (CRED) published a first version of The Psychology of Climate Change Communication. In it, we attempted to summarize facts and concepts from psychological research that could help guide communication. While this work focused on climate change, most of the ideas are at least partly applicable for communication about a variety of natural hazards. Of the many examples in this guide, I mention three. Single-action bias is the human tendency to stop considering further actions that might be needed to deal with a given hazard, once a single action has been taken. Another example is the importance of group affiliation in motivating voluntary contributions to joint action. A third concerns the finding that group participation enhances understanding of probabilistic concepts and promotes action in the face of uncertainty. One current research direction, which goes beyond those included in the above publication, focuses on how time horizons arise in the thinking of individuals and groups, and how these time horizons might influence hazard preparedness. On the one hand, individuals sometimes appear impatient, organizations look for immediate results, and officials fail to look beyond the next election cycle. Yet under some laboratory conditions and in some subcultures, a longer time horizon is adopted. We are interested in how time horizon is influenced by group identity and by the very architecture of planning and decision making. Institutional changes, involving long-term contractual relationships among communities, developers, insurers, and governments, could greatly increase resilience in the face of natural hazards. Communication about hazards, in the context of such long-term contractual relationships might look very different from communication that is first initiated by immediate threat. Another new direction concerns the social scale of institutions and of communication about hazards. Traditionally, insurance contracts share risk among a large

Triassic clastic deposits of Chukotka are represented by rhythmic intercalation of sandstones, siltstones and mudstones. During the Triassic, sedimentation was represented by continental slope progradation. Detrital zircons from Triassic sedimentary rocks were collected for constrain its paleogeographic links to source terranes. Zircons populations from three Chukotka's samples are very similar, and youngest zircon ages show peaks at 236-255 Ma (Miller et al., 2006). Lower Triassic sandstones from the Chaun subterrane do not contain the young population 235-265 Ma that is characteristic of the Upper Triassic rocks from the Anyui subterrane and Wrangel Island. The young zircon population is missing also from the coeval Sadlerochit Group (Alaska) and Blind Fiord Formation of the Sverdrup basin (Miller et al., 2006; Omma et al., 2011). Our data of Triassic sandstones of Wrangel island demonstrate detrital zircons ages dominated by Middle Triassic (227-245 Ma), Carboniferous (309-332 Ma) and Paleoproterozoic (1808-2500 Ma) ages. The new data on Chukotka show that populations of detrital zircons from Chukotka, the Sverdrup basin, and Alaska, the Sadlerochit Mountains included, demonstrate greater similarity than it was previously thought. Consequently, it may be assumed that they originate from a single source situated in the north. The data on zircon age of gabbro-dolerite magmatism in eastern Chukotka (252 Ma. Ledneva et al., 2011) and K-Ar ages obtained for sills and small intrusive bodies (Geodynamics…, 2006) in Lower Triassic deposits allow the local provenance. The presence of products of synchronous magmatism and shallow-water facies in the Lower Triassic sequences confirm this assumption. At the same time, coeval zircons appear only in the Upper Triassic strata. It is conceivable that the young zircon population originates from intrusive, not volcanic rocks, which were subjected to erosion only in the Late Triassic. In our opinion, the assumption of the local

Forces in dense granular material are transmitted through particle contacts. The evolution of the contact stress is directly related to dynamical interaction forces between particles. Since particle contacts in a dense granular material are random, a statistical method is employed to describe and model their motions. It is found that the timescales of particle contacts determinate stress relaxation and the fluid- like or solid-like behavior of the material. Numerical simulations are performed to calculate statistical properties of particle interactions. Using results from the numerical simulations we examine the relationship between the averaged local deformation field and the macroscopic deformation field. We also examine the relationship between the averaged local interaction force and the averaged stress field in the material. Validities of the Voigt and the Reuss assumptions are examined; and extensions to these assumptions are studied. Numerical simulations show that tangential frictions between particles significantly increase the contact stress, while the direct contribution of the tangential force to the stress is small. This puzzling observation can be explained by dependency of the relaxation time on the tangential friction.

Bedload transport rates in mountain streams may exhibit wide fluctuations even under constant flow conditions. A better understanding of bedload pulses is key to predict natural hazards induced by torrential activity and sediment issues in mountainous areas. Several processes such as bedforms migration, grain sorting and random particles' trajectories are evoked as the driving agents of pulse formation and development. Quantifying the effects of these processes is a difficult task. This work aims to investigate the interactions between bedload transport and bedform dynamics in steep gravel-bed rivers. Experiments are carried out in a 17-m long 60-cm wide flume inclined at an angle of 2.7%. The bed is initially flat and made of homogenous natural gravel with a mean diameter of 6 mm. We imposed 200 identical hydrographs (of 1 hr duration) at the flume inlet (the bed surface was not flattened out during these cycling floods). The input hydrograph and the input sediment discharge are nearly triangular. Bed topography is measured after each flood using ultrasound sensors while the bedload transport rate is steadily monitored at the outlet using accelerometers (accelerometers fixed on metallic plates record the impacts of the grains flowing out of the flume). For the sake of comparison, a similar experiment consisting of 19 floods of 10 hours is carried out under constant supply conditions. We show that accelerometers are a cost effective technique to obtain high-frequency bedload discharge data. Spectral analysis of the bedload timeseries is used to highlight the different timescales corresponding to different bedload transport processes. We show that long timeseries are necessary to capture the different processes that drive bedload transport, including the resilience time after a perturbation of the bed. The alternate bars that develop and migrate along the flume are found to significantly influence bedload transport rate fluctuations.

The Kalman filter in question, which was implemented in the timescale algorithm TA(NIST), produces timescales with poor short-term stability. A simple modification of the error covariance matrix allows the filter to produce timescales with good stability at all averaging times, as verified by simulations of clock ensembles.

Fractal is employed in this paper as a scale-based method for the identification of the scaling behavior of time series. Many spatial and temporal processes exhibiting complex multi(mono)-scaling behaviors are fractals. One of the important concepts in fractals is crossover timescale(s) that separates distinct regimes having different fractal scaling behaviors. A common method is multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MF-DFA). The detection of crossover timescale(s) is, however, relatively subjective since it has been made without rigorous statistical procedures and has generally been determined by eye balling or subjective observation. Crossover timescales such determined may be spurious and problematic. It may not reflect the genuine underlying scaling behavior of a time series. The purpose of this paper is to propose a statistical procedure to model complex fractal scaling behaviors and reliably identify the crossover timescales under MF-DFA. The scaling-identification regression model, grounded on a solid statistical foundation, is first proposed to describe multi-scaling behaviors of fractals. Through the regression analysis and statistical inference, we can (1) identify the crossover timescales that cannot be detected by eye-balling observation, (2) determine the number and locations of the genuine crossover timescales, (3) give confidence intervals for the crossover timescales, and (4) establish the statistically significant regression model depicting the underlying scaling behavior of a time series. To substantive our argument, the regression model is applied to analyze the multi-scaling behaviors of avian-influenza outbreaks, water consumption, daily mean temperature, and rainfall of Hong Kong. Through the proposed model, we can have a deeper understanding of fractals in general and a statistical approach to identify multi-scaling behavior under MF-DFA in particular.

Aftermaths of mass extinctions have been thought to be characterized by relaxation of ecological constraints accompanied by increased prominence of opportunistic generalists. Such taxa, termed 'disaster forms,' have been shown to increase dramatically in range and abundance after several mass extinction events. The Cambrian-Ordovician stromatolite decline in normal-marine level-bottom environments has been explained as a direct or indirect consequence of increases in ecological constraints, such as greater levels of predation and/or bioturbation of microbial communities, caused by early Paleozoic benthic invertebrate evolution and diversification. Thus, one would predict that in post-Ordovician strata, stromatolites might appear in normal-marine level-bottom environments as disaster forms in the aftermaths of mass extinction particularly devastating to the benthic biota, such as during Early Triassictime. Mounded stromatolites are present in two beds (up to 1.5 m thick) of the Lower Triassic (Spathian) Virgin Limestone Member (Moenkopi Formation) in the southwestern Spring Mountains of Nevada. Stromatolites from level-bottom normal-marine subtidal environments have also been described from other Lower Triassic strata in North America, Europe, and Asia. These stromatolites, unusual in level-bottom normal-marine settings, may have developed locally during the long aftermath (4-5 m.y.) of the Permian-Triassic mass extinction because of partial relaxation of the ecological constraints that typically restricted them from unstressed subtidal, normal-marine, level-bottom environments.

The transition from the Triassic to Jurassic Period, initiating the 'Age of the dinosaurs', approximately 200 Ma, is marked by a profound mass extinction with more than 50% genus loss in both marine and continental realms. This event closely coincides with a period of extensive volcanism in the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) associated with the initial break-up of Pangaea but a causal relationship is still debated. The Triassic-Jurassic (T-J) boundary is recently proposed in the marine record at the first occurrence datum of Jurassic ammonites, post-dating the extinction interval that concurs with two distinct perturbations in the carbon isotope record. The continental record shows a major palynological turnover together with a prominent change in tetrapod taxa, but a direct link to the marine events is still equivocal. Here we develop an accurate chronostratigraphic framework for the T-J boundary interval and establish detailed trans-Atlantic and marine-continental correlations by integrating astrochronology, paleomagnetism, basalt geochemistry and geobiology. We show that the oldest CAMP basalts are diachronous by 20 kyr across the Atlantic Ocean, and that these two volcanic pulses coincide with the end-Triassic extinction interval in the marine realm. Our results support the hypotheses of Phanerozoic mass extinctions resulting from emplacement of Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs) and provide crucial time constraints for numerical modelling of Triassic-Jurassic climate change and global carbon-cycle perturbations.

The end of the Triassic period was marked by one of the largest and most enigmatic mass-extinction events in Earth's history and, with few reliable marine geochemical records, terrestrial sediments offer an important means of deciphering environmental changes at this time. Tanner et al. describe an isotopic study of Mesozoic fossil soils which suggests that the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (pCO2) across the Triassic-Jurassic boundary was relatively constant (within 250 p.p.m.v.), but this is inconsistent with high-resolution evidence from the stomatal characters of fossil leaves. Here I show that the temporal resolution of the fossil-soil samples may have been inadequate for detecting a transient rise in pCO2. I also show that the fossil-soil data are consistent with a large increase in pCO2 across the Triassic-Jurassic boundary when variations in the stable carbon isotope (denoted as delta13C) in terrestrial plant leaves are taken into account. These factors suggest that the linkage between pCO2, global warming and the end-Triassic mass extinction remains intact. PMID:11807542

Estuarine timescales including the turnover, particle e-folding time, the age (calculated with a passive tracer), and residence time (calculated with Lagrangian particles) were computed using a three-dimensional hydrodynamic model of Galveston Bay, a low-flow, partially stratified estuary. Timescales were computed during a time period when river flow varied by several orders of magnitude and all timescales therefore exhibited significant temporal variability because of the unsteadiness of the system. The spatial distributions of age and residence time were qualitatively similar and increased from 15 days in a shipping channel to >45 days in the upper estuary. Volume-averaged age and residence time decreased during high-flow conditions. Bulk timescales, including the freshwater and salinity turnover times, were far more variable due to the changing river discharge and salt flux through the estuary mouth. A criterion for calculating a suitable averaging time is discussed to satisfy a steady state assumption and to estimate a more representative bulk timescale. When scaled with a freshwater advective time, all timescales were approximately equal to the advective timescale during high-flow conditions and many times higher during low-flow conditions. The mean age, Lagrangian residence, and flushing times exhibited a relationship that was weakly dependent on the freshwater advective timescale demonstrating predictability even in an unsteady, realistic estuary.

Reversals and excursions of Earth's geomagnetic field create marker horizons that are readily detected in sedimentary and volcanic rocks worldwide. An accurate and precise chronology of these geomagnetic field instabilities is fundamental to understanding several aspects of Quaternary climate, dynamo processes, and surface processes. For example, stratigraphic correlation between marine sediment and polar ice records of climate change across the cryospheres benefits from a highly resolved record of reversals and excursions. The temporal patterns of dynamo behavior may reflect physical interactions between the molten outer core and the solid inner core or lowermost mantle. These interactions may control reversal frequency and shape the weak magnetic fields that arise during successive dynamo instabilities. Moreover, weakening of the axial dipole during reversals and excursions enhances the production of cosmogenic isotopes that are used in sediment and ice core stratigraphy and surface exposure dating. The Geomagnetic Instability TimeScale (GITS) is based on the direct dating of transitional polarity states recorded by lava flows using the 40Ar/39Ar method, in parallel with astrochronologic age models of marine sediments in which O isotope and magnetic records have been obtained. A review of data from Quaternary lava flows and sediments yields a GITS comprising 10 polarity reversals and 27 excursions during the past 2.6 million years. Nine of the ten reversals bounding chrons and subchrons are associated with 40Ar/39Ar ages of transitionally-magnetized lava flows. The tenth, the Guass-Matuyama chron boundary, is tightly bracketed by 40Ar/39Ar dated ash deposits. Of the 27 well-documented excursions, 14 occurred during the Matuyama chron and 13 during the Brunhes chron; 19 have been dated directly using the 40Ar/39Ar method on transitionally-magnetized volcanic rocks and form the backbone of the GITS. Excursions are clearly not the rare phenomena once thought

The mass extinction at the Permian-Triassic boundary, 251 million years (Myr) ago, is accepted as the most profound loss of life on record. Global data compilations indicate a loss of 50% of families or more, both in the sea and on land, and these figures scale to a loss of 80-96% of species, based on rarefaction analyses. This level of loss is confirmed by local and regional-scale studies of marine sections, but the terrestrial record has been harder to analyse in such close detail. Here we document the nature of the event in Russia in a comprehensive survey of 675 specimens of amphibians and reptiles from 289 localities spanning 13 successive geological time zones in the South Urals basin. These changes in diversity and turnover cannot be explained simply by sampling effects. There was a profound loss of genera and families, and simplification of ecosystems, with the loss of small fish-eaters and insect-eaters, medium and large herbivores and large carnivores. Faunal dynamics also changed, from high rates of turnover through the Late Permian period to greater stability at low diversity through the Early Triassic period. Even after 15 Myr of ecosystem rebuilding, some guilds were apparently still absent-small fish-eaters, small insect-eaters, large herbivores and top carnivores. PMID:15525988

The long term performance of the eight LORAN-C chains is presented in terms of the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) of the U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO); and the use of the LORAN-C navigation system for maintaining the user's clock to a UTC scale is described. The atomic timescale and the UTC of several national laboratories and observatories relative to the international atomic time are reported. Typical performance of several NASA tracking station clocks, relative to the USNO master clock, is also presented.

Although response times on test items are recorded on a natural scale, the scale for some of the parameters in the lognormal response-time model (van der Linden, 2006) is not fixed. As a result, when the model is used to periodically calibrate new items in a testing program, the parameter are not automatically mapped onto a common scale. Several…

The timing of the end-Permian mass extinction and subsequent prolonged recovery during the Early Triassic Epoch can be established from astronomically controlled climate cycles recorded in continuous marine sedimentary sections. Astronomical-cycle tuning of spectral gamma-ray logs from biostratigraphically-constrained cyclic stratigraphy through marine sections at Meishan, Chaohu, Daxiakou and Guandao in South China yields an integrated timescale for the Early Triassic, which is consistent with scaling of magnetostratigraphy from climatic cycles in continental deposits of the Germanic Basin. The main marine mass extinction interval at Meishan is constrained to less than 40% of a 100-kyr (kilo-year) cycle (i.e., <40 kyr) and the sharp negative excursion in δ13C is estimated to have lasted <6 kyr. The sharp positive shift in δ13C from - 2 ‰ to 4‰ across the Smithian-Spathian boundary at Chaohu was completed in 50 kyr. The earliest marine reptiles in the Mesozoic at Chaohu that are considered to represent a significant recovery of marine ecosystems did not appear until 4.7 myr (million years) after the end-Permian extinction. The durations of the Griesbachian, Dienerian, Smithian and Spathian substages, including the uncertainty in placement of widely used conodont biostratigraphic datums for their boundaries, are 1.4 ± 0.1, 0.6 ± 0.1, 1.7 ± 0.1 and 1.4 ± 0.1 myr, implying a total span for the Early Triassic of 5.1 ± 0.1 myr. Therefore, relative to an assigned 251.902 ± 0.024 Ma for the Permian-Triassic boundary from the Meishan GSSP, the ages for these substage boundaries are 250.5 ± 0.1 Ma for base Dienerian, 249.9 ± 0.1 Ma for base Smithian (base of Olenekian stage), 248.2 ± 0.1 Ma for base Spathian, and 246.8 ± 0.1 Ma for the base of the Anisian Stage. This astronomical-calibrated timescale provides rates for the recurrent carbon isotope excursions and for trends in sedimentation accumulation through the Early Triassic of studied sections in South

A major angular unconformity separates carbonates and shales of the Upper Triassic Kamishak Formation from an underlying unnamed sequence of Permian agglomerate, volcaniclastic rocks (sandstone), and limestone near Puale Bay on the Alaska Peninsula. For the first time, we photographically document the angular unconformity in outcrop, as clearly exposed in a seacliff ~1.3 mi (2.1 km) west of Cape Kekurnoi in the Karluk C?4 and C?5 1:63,360-scale quadrangles. This unconformity is also documented by examination of core chips, ditch cuttings, and (or) open-hole electrical logs in two deep oil-and-gas-exploration wells (Humble Oil & Refining Co.?s Bear Creek No. 1 and Standard Oil Co. of California?s Grammer No. 1) drilled along the Alaska Peninsula southwest of Puale Bay. A third well (Richfield Oil Corp.?s Wide Bay Unit No. 1), south of and structurally on trend with the other two wells, probed deeply into the Paleozoic basement, but Triassic strata are absent, owing to either a major unconformity or a large fault. Here we briefly review current and newly acquired data on Permian and Triassic rocks of the Puale Bay-Becharof Lake-Wide Bay area on the basis of an examination of surface and subsurface materials. The resulting reinterpretation of the Permian and Triassic stratigraphy has important economic ramifications for oil and gas exploration on the Alaska Peninsula and in the Cook Inlet basin. We also present a history of petroleum exploration targeting Upper Triassic reservoirs in the region.

Background Biological processes occur on a vast range of timescales, and many of them occur concurrently. As a result, system-wide measurements of gene expression have the potential to capture many of these processes simultaneously. The challenge however, is to separate these processes and timescales in the data. In many cases the number of processes and their timescales is unknown. This issue is particularly relevant to developmental biologists, who are interested in processes such as growth, segmentation and differentiation, which can all take place simultaneously, but on different timescales. Results We introduce a flexible and statistically rigorous method for detecting different timescales in time-series gene expression data, by identifying expression patterns that are temporally shifted between replicate datasets. We apply our approach to a Saccharomyces cerevisiae cell-cycle dataset and an Arabidopsis thaliana root developmental dataset. In both datasets our method successfully detects processes operating on several different timescales. Furthermore we show that many of these timescales can be associated with particular biological functions. Conclusions The spatiotemporal modules identified by our method suggest the presence of multiple biological processes, acting at distinct timescales in both the Arabidopsis root and yeast. Using similar large-scale expression datasets, the identification of biological processes acting at multiple timescales in many organisms is now possible. PMID:20565716

The 34-million-year (My) interval of the Late Triassic is marked by the formation of several large impact structures on Earth. Late Triassic impact events have been considered a factor in biotic extinction events in the Late Triassic (e.g., end-Triassic extinction event), but this scenario remains controversial because of a lack of stratigraphic records of ejecta deposits. Here, we report evidence for an impact event (platinum group elements anomaly with nickel-rich magnetite and microspherules) from the middle Norian (Upper Triassic) deep-sea sediment in Japan. This includes anomalously high abundances of iridium, up to 41.5 parts per billion (ppb), in the ejecta deposit, which suggests that the iridium-enriched ejecta layers of the Late Triassic may be found on a global scale. The ejecta deposit is constrained by microfossils that suggest correlation with the 215.5-Mya, 100-km-wide Manicouagan impact crater in Canada. Our analysis of radiolarians shows no evidence of a mass extinction event across the impact event horizon, and no contemporaneous faunal turnover is seen in other marine planktons. However, such an event has been reported among marine faunas and terrestrial tetrapods and floras in North America. We, therefore, suggest that the Manicouagan impact triggered the extinction of terrestrial and marine organisms near the impact site but not within the pelagic marine realm. PMID:23129649

The comprehensive analysis of the data obtained on terrestrial vertebrata, ostracods, entomologic fauna, megaflora, and microflora in deposits of the Vyaznikovian Horizon and Nedubrovo Member, as well as the paleomagnetic data measured in enclosing rocks, confirms heterogeneity of these deposits. Accordingly, it is necessary to distinguish these two stratons in the terminal Permian of the East European Platform. The combined sequence of Triassic-Permian boundary deposits in the Moscow Syneclise, which is considered to be the most complete sequence in the East European Platform, is as follows (from bottom upward): Vyatkian deposits; Vyaznikovian Horizon, including Sokovka and Zhukovo members; Nedubrovo Member (Upper Permian); Astashikha and Ryabi members of the Vokhmian Horizon (Lower Triassic). None of the sequences of Permian-Triassic boundary deposits known in the area of study characterizes this sequence in full volume. In the north, the Triassic deposits are underlain by the Nedubrovo Member; in the south (the Klyazma River basin), the sections are underlain by the Vyaznikovian Horizon. The Permian-Triassic boundary adopted in the General Stratigraphic Scale of Russia for continental deposits of the East European platform (the lower boundary of the Astashikha Member) is more ancient than the one adopted in the International Stratigraphic Chart. The same geological situation is observed in the German Basin and other localities where Triassic continental deposits are developed. The ways of solving this problem are discussed in this article.

The 87Sr/ 86Sr values based on brachiopods and conodonts define a nearly continuous record for the Late Permian and Triassic intervals. Minor gaps in measurements exist only for the uppermost Brahmanian, lower part of the Upper Olenekian, and Middle Norian, and only sparse data are available for the Late Permian. These 219 measurements include 67 brachiopods and 114 conodont samples from the Tethyan realm as well as 37 brachiopods and one conodont sample from the mid-European Middle Triassic Muschelkalk Sea. The Late Permian/Lower Triassic interval is characterized by a steep 1.3 × 10 -3 rise, from 0.7070 at the base of the Dzhulfian to 0.7082 in the late Olenekian, a rate of change comparable to that in the Cenozoic. In the mid-Triassic (Anisian and Ladinian), the isotope values fall to 0.7075, followed again by a rise to 0.7081 in the Middle/Late Norian. The 87Sr/ 86Sr values decline again in the Late Norian (Sevatian) and Rhaetian to 0.7076. The sharp rise in the 87Sr/ 86Sr values during the Late Permian/Early Triassic was coincident with widespread clastic sedimentation. Because of the paucity of tectonic uplifts, the enhanced erosion may have been due to intermittent humid phases, during mainly an arid interval, coupled with the absence of a dense protective land plant cover following the mass extinction during the latest Permian. The apex of the 87Sr/ 86Sr curve at the Olenekian/Anisian boundary coincides with cessation of the large-scale clastic sedimentation and also marks the final recovery of land vegetation, as indicated by the renewed onset of coal formation in the Middle Triassic. The rising 87Sr/ 86Sr values from the Middle Carnian to the Late Norian coincide with the uplift and erosion of the Cimmeride-Indosinian orogens marking the closure of the Palaeotethys. The subsequent Rhaetian decline that continues into Jurassic (Pliensbachian/Toarcian boundary), on the other hand, coincides with the opening of the Vardar Ocean and its eastern continuation

Significant contractional structures that deform Permian rocks but predate an Early Triassic overlap sequence are recognized within the Cordilleran orogen, western US. Thrusting in the Death Valley region of the orogen, however, has been regarded as Middle Triassic or younger and thus kinematically distinct. The authors present new isotopic age limits on two posttectonic stocks that intrude major structures of the Death Valley thrust belt. The stocks are no younger than Middle Triassic, but are likely Late Permian in age, consistent with stratigraphic and structural data suggesting that thrusting predates the overlap sequence. The authors hypothesize that Permian shortening may have affected more than 700 km of the Cordilleran orogen at the same time arc activity began within cratonic North America but prior to Early Triassic emplacement of the structurally higher Sonomian arc terrane.

Triassic bedded cherts from the Jurassic accretionary complexes in Japan consist of centimeter scale alternations of chert and shale beds. Previous studies have proposed that the rhythmical alternations of Triassic chert and shale beds represent astronomical cycles. Although cyclostratigraphy of the Triassic bedded chert sequence was identified in the Inuyama area of the Mino Belt, central Japan, the validity of its cyclostratigraphy requires detailed cyclostratigraphic correlations to other Triassic bedded chert sequences in Japan. In this study, we performed cyclostratigraphic analysises to the Middle Triassic (Anisian-Ladinian) bedded chert sequence in the Tsukumi area of the Chichibu Belt, southwest Japan. The average duration of a chert-shale couplet in the Middle Triassic bedded chert of the Tsukumi area is ~10 kyr. This duration is inconsistent with the ~20 kyr duration of the precession cycle during the Triassic, which was confirmed by estimated average duration of a chert-shale couplet in the Triassic bedded chert of the Inuyama area. The dominat cycles in a bed number series of thickness variations in the Middle Triassic chert beds show approximately 2-5, 10, 40, 200, 300 and 400 beds cycles. Given that the average duration of one chert-shale couplet is 10 kyr, these cycles correspond to approximately 20-50, 100, 400, 2000, 3000 and 4000 kyr periodicities. The periodicities of the Tsukumi chert are consistent with those of the Inuyama chert (approximately 40-60, 100, 140, 240, 400 and 4000 kyr). Previous paleomagnetic studies have revealed that the Middle Triassic bedded cherts in the Tsukumi area were deposited in the equatorial region (2.1°±5.2°S), whereas the deposition of the Inuyama cherts occur at relatively higher latitude (16.9°±10.2°N). If the interpretation that rhythmical alternations of chert and shale beds are paced by precession and eccentricity cycles is valid, the average duration of a chet-shale couplet from the Tsukumi area might

We examine the timing signatures of large solar eruptions resulting in flares, CMEs and Solar Energetic Particle events. We probe solar active regions from the chromosphere through the corona, using data from space and ground-based observations, including ISOON, SDO, GONG, and GOES. Our studies include a number of flares and CMEs of mostly the M- and X-strengths as categorized by GOES. We find that the chromospheric signatures of these large eruptions occur 5-30 minutes in advance of coronal high temperature signatures. These timing measurements are then used as inputs to models and reconstruct the eruptive nature of these systems, and explore their utility in forecasts.

pink stage, with an increase in the amount and size of sericite and hematite inclusions. The latter causes the red coloration of the altered rocks. Regional layout Regional distribution of the alterations which affect the Carboniferous igneous and volcanic formations beneath the Jurassic sedimentary cover lead to associate these alterations to the Triassic unconformity. Besides, albitized facies show generally both topographic and regional arrangements, with more altered facies occurring in the mountain highs and in the external parts of the massifs and unaltered facies occurring in the river valleys and in the central parts of the massifs. Moreover, the haematite associated with these albitized basement rocks has been dated from Early Trias by means of paleomagnetism (Ricordel et al, 2007). From this layout and dating, it is deduced that albitization is related to the development of a deep weathering profile (up to 150 m deep) during a long-lasting exposure of the Triassic erosional unconformity (regolith). Geochemistry and paleoenvironmental setting It has to be highlighted that, this alteration may not behave like an "ordinary" weathering profile and occurred under unusual, or at least very specific, geological settings. The scale of the profiles (over 100 m depth) relates this alteration rather to a groundwater environment. The weak mobility of most chemical elements may point to a groundwater with very low outflows and deep water table. This may occur in very subdued landscape and in arid climatic conditions. It has also to be pointed that this alteration may have lasted for several 10's of Ma. Albite formation at low temperature may be envisioned consequently in alkaline, confined waters with sufficient concentrations of sodium and silica. Early attempts of modeling (Schmitt, 1994) have also indicated that a high Na+/K+ ratio is as well probably required. Petrographic data also indicate an import of sodium by the weathering solutions, without any clear enrichment

Fractured and kaolinite weathered basement rocks have been discovered in various wells off the Norwegian coast and inferences on timing, source to sink relationships, and environmental implications have been widely discussed. The reason for the kaolitinization has often been related to intensive chemical weathering during late Triassic to early Jurassic times. Chronological control has primarily been inferred from the overlying late Jurassic/early Cretaceous marine transgression and poorly constrained K-Ar datings from weathered basement onshore as well as climate conditions favourable for kaolinite formation. In this study, we present evidence that the deeply weathered basement off the mid-Norwegian coast represent a complete paleosol profile. Quartz geochemical fingerprinting indicate that transgressional marine inorganic sediments of late Jurassic age are derived from the paleosols. Whole-rock XRD analysis suggests characteristic mineral alteration zones topped with a kaolinite-Fe-oxyhyroxide zones composed of >80% kaolinite. Potassium feldspar is practically absent in the uppermost kaolinitic zones. Mass-balance changes show significant depletion-enrichment trends. Applying potassium/argon (K/Ar) geochronology on authigenic illite clay that grew in-situ at the time of paleosol formation reveals a early Triassic age (~250 Ma). The age corroborates with the Early Triassic biotic crisis and suggest a causal relationship between intense chemical weathering, high atmospheric CO2 concentration, extreme ocean warming, increased riverine flux of nutrients and widespread anoxia/euxinia on adjacent epicontinental seas.

Geochronological results from central Europe indicate that the duration of Pennsylvanian time is only 19 m.y., compared to the Harland et al. and Palmer estimates of 34 m.y. Prior calculations of Pennsylvanian cycle periods from the midcontinent of North America suggesting a fit with Milankovitch orbital parameters may well be in errors; as a consequence, other mechanisms for possible eustatic sea-level changes represented in those cycles are needed. Calculation of cycle periods of 100 ka or less lack precision in stratigraphic intervals representing ages characterized by error margins of millions of years. Thus, cycle periods may be less reliable as an indicator of global process than previously considered, particularly in rocks of Paleozoic and early and middle Mesozoic age.

Feasibility of steering a timescale using an optical clock is investigated. Since the high stability of optical frequency standards enables rapid evaluation of the scale interval, the requirement for the continuous operation is mitigated. Numerical simulations with the input of real calibration data by a 87Sr lattice clock indicated that the calibrations once in two weeks maintain the timescale within 5 ns level using a currently available hydrogen maser at NICT. “Optical” steering of a timescale by the intermittent calibrations frees an optical frequency standard from being dedicated to the steering, enabling other applications using the same apparatus.

The Beishan orogenic collage (BOC) in the southernmost Altaids provides evidence of the final stage of evolution of the Paleo-Asian Ocean. However, the closure time of the Paleo-Asian Ocean in the BOC is controversial. From field mapping, and structural analysis of mesoscale, superposed folds in Early Triassic sediments in the Hongyanjing Basin in the central BOC, we define at least two phases of deformation, which we can bracket in age as end-Permian to Early-Late Triassic. The sandstones in the basin are poorly sorted with angular clasts, which indicates immaturity characteristic of proximal and rapid deposition. Geochemical data indicate that the Hongyanjing Basin probably developed in an arc-related setting near an active continental margin or mature island arc. Combined with published regional geological data, we interpret the Hongyanjing Basin as a Permian-Early Triassic inter-arc basin between the Carboniferous Mazongshan arc to the north and the Ordovician to Permian Huaniushan-Dundunshan arc to the south. In addition, the age distribution of our sediments shows that the active continental margin or continental arc on which the Hongyanjing arc-related basin sat was somehow independently distributed in the Paleo-Asian Ocean without any major contribution of provenance from the Tarim Craton and Dunhuang Block to the south and Southern Mongolia accretionary system to the north. Deformation of the superposed folds began in the end-Permian, continued in the Early Triassic, and ended before the middle Late Triassic (219 Ma). Therefore the accretionary orogenesis in the Beishan part of the southernmost Altaids was still ongoing in the early to middle Triassic, and it finished in the Late Triassic, which might have been the last pulse of the accretionary orogenesis in the southernmost Altaids. We correlate this terminal event with tectonic developments in the Kunlun and Qinling orogens in the Tethyan domain.

Systematic biases that are redshift dependent can influence the optical discovery of quasars and the evolution laws derived from counts of quasars. New data and their interpretation for quasars brighter than MB = -24 in the Palomar Bright Quasar Survey (BQS) (Schmidt and Green, 1983) are consistent with no evolution. A comparison of BQS quasars with the brightest quasars from the CTIO Schmidt Telescope Survey (Osmer and Smith, 1980) shows that if q(0) is near zero, the comoving density of bright quasars in a Friedmann cosmology is about 15 times higher for the CTIO survey quasars (mean z of about 2.8) than for the BQS quasars (mean z of about 1.8). In this case spectral evolution is also required since the CTIO quasars have stronger CIV 1548 A lines than the BQS quasars of similar luminosity. Alternatively, if q(0) is taken to be near 1, the CTIO survey quasars would then have a lower luminosity than the BQS quasars and these data would be consistent with no evolution. Strong CIV 1548 A lines for the CTIO quasars would then fit the general correlation between absolute quasar luminosity and emission line strength (Wampler, Gaskell, Burke and Baldwin, 1984).

Lithostratigraphy and vertebrate biochronology allow precise correlation of Upper Triassic strata between west Texas and eastern New Mexico. Upper Triassic strata are well exposed in west Texas from Oldham to Scurry counties, and are assigned to the Dockum Formation of the Chinle Group. Fossil vertebrates from the Camp Springs and Tecovas Members are of late Carnian age, whereas those from the Copper Member are of early Norian age. Upper Triassic strata in east-central New Mexico, across the Llano Estacado from the west Texas outcrops, correlate as follows: Camper Springs = lower Santa Rose; Tecovas = upper Santa Rosa/Garita Creek; Trujillo = Trujillo ('Cuervo'); Cooper = lower Bull Canyon. Upper Triassic strata in southeastern New Mexico and in Howard and adjacent counties in Texas are the lower Santa Rosa/Camper Springs overlain by mudstones and sandstones that contain late Carnian vertebrates and are informally termed upper member of Dockum Formation. Available data refute several long-held ideas about the Upper Triassic of west Texas. These data demonstrate that: (1) there is a pervasive unconformity at the base of the Dockum Formation that represents much of Triassictime; (2) the Trujillo Member is not correlative with the Santa Rosa of eastern New Mexico: Trujillo is a medial Dockum unit, whereas Santa Rosa is at the base of the Upper Triassic section; (3) very little Dockum mudrock was deposited in lakes; and (4) Dockum rivers flowed almost exclusively to the north, northwest, and west, so there was no closed depositional basin in west Texas during the Late Triassic.

Studies of the end-Permian mass extinction have emphasized potential abiotic causes and their direct biotic effects. Less attention has been devoted to secondary extinctions resulting from ecological crises and the effect of community structure on such extinctions. Here we use a trophic network model that combines topological and dynamic approaches to simulate disruptions of primary productivity in palaeocommunities. We apply the model to Permian and Triassic communities of the Karoo Basin, South Africa, and show that while Permian communities bear no evidence of being especially susceptible to extinction, Early Triassic communities appear to have been inherently less stable. Much of the instability results from the faster post-extinction diversification of amphibian guilds relative to amniotes. The resulting communities differed fundamentally in structure from their Permian predecessors. Additionally, our results imply that changing community structures over time may explain long-term trends like declining rates of Phanerozoic background extinction PMID:17609191

We study coarse-grained entropy production in an asymmetric random walk system on a periodic one-dimensional lattice. In coarse-grained systems, the original dynamics are unavoidably destroyed, but the coarse-grained entropy production is not hidden below the critical time-scale separation. The hidden entropy production is rapidly increasing near the critical time-scale separation.

Human bocavirus (HBoV) is associated with acute gastroenteritis in humans, occurring mostly in young children and elderly people. Four bocavirus genotypes (HBoV1-HBoV4) have been found so far. Since there were no data on the contribution of HBoV to gastroenteritis in Russia, 1781 fecal samples collected from infants hospitalized with acute gastroenteritis in Novosibirsk, Russia during one year were tested for the presence of nucleic acids from HBoV and three major gastrointestinal viruses (rotavirus A, norovirus II, and astrovirus). HBoV was detected only in 1.9% of the samples: HBoV1 was detected in 0.6% and HBoV2, in 1.3%. Complete genome sequencing of three Novosibirsk isolates was performed. An evolutionary analysis of these sequences and the available sequences of human and great apes bocaviruses demonstrated that the current HBoV genotypes diverged comparatively recently, about 60-300years ago. The independent evolution of bocaviruses from chimpanzees and gorillas commenced at the same time period. This suggests that these isolates of great apes bocaviruses belong to separate genotypes within the species of human bocavirus, which is actually the primate bocavirus. The rate of mutation accumulation in the genome of primate bocaviruses has been estimated as approximately 9×10(-4)substitutions/site/year. It has been demonstrated that HBoV1 diverged from the ancestor common with chimpanzee bocavirus approximately 60-80years ago, while HBoV4 separated from great apes bocaviruses about 200-300years ago. The hypothesis postulating independent evolution of HBoV1 and HBoV4 genotypes from primate bocaviruses has been proposed. PMID:23313830

Generally Early Triassic floras are believed to be depauperate, suffering from protracted recovery following the Permian–Triassic extinction event. Here we present palynological data of an expanded East Greenland section documenting recovered floras in the basal Triassic (Griesbachian) and a subsequent fundamental floral turnover, postdating the Permian–Triassic boundary extinction by about 500 kyrs. This event is marked by a swap in dominating floral elements, changing from gymnosperm pollen-dominated associations in the Griesbachian to lycopsid spore-dominated assemblages in the Dienerian. This turnover coincides with an extreme δ13Corg negative shift revealing a severe environmental crisis, probably induced by volcanic outbursts of the Siberian Traps, accompanied by a climatic turnover, changing from cool and dry in the Griesbachian to hot and humid in the Dienerian. Estimates of sedimentation rates suggest that this environmental alteration took place within some 1000 years. Similar, coeval changes documented on the North Indian Margin (Pakistan) and the Bowen Basin (Australia) indicate the global extent of this crisis. Our results evidence the first profound disruption of the recovery of terrestrial environments about 500kyrs after the Permian–Triassic extinction event. It was followed by another crisis, about 1myrs later thus, the Early Triassic can be characterised as a time of successive environmental crises. PMID:27340926

The most devastated environments and depleted biodiversity on Earth occurred during the Early Triassic epoch following the latest Permian mass extinction. Complete biotic recovery, characterized by a return to pre-extinction diversity levels, took an extraordinarily long time (ca. 5 x 106 yr), probably because harsh conditions developed repeatedly during the Early Triassic. Newly obtained organic geochemistry data from south China area, indicated a variety of biotic (eukaryotic algae, cyanobacteria, bacteria, and archaea) and environmental fluctuations (redox) during the Early Triassic. Remarkably, some sedimentary rocks from Lower Triassic strata contain rare biomarkers such as biphytanes and okenane, whch are biomarkers for archaea and purple sulfur bacteria, respectively. This is the first study to describe in detail primary producers, microbes, and redox conditions in the Early-Early Middle Triassic, on the basis of biomarkers such as steranes, 2-methyl hopanes, hopanes, biphytanes, regular isoprenoids, n-alkanes, okenane, chlorobactane, β-carotane, and γ-carotane. The results greatly not only increase our understanding of the recovery processes that occurred following the Permian mass extinction, but also emphasize an effectiveness of organic geochemistry against the Early Triassic.

The discovery of the first definitively correlated earliest Jurassic (200 million years before present) tetrapod assemblage (Fundy basin, Newark Supergroup, Nova Scotia) allows reevaluation of the duration of the Triassic-Jurassic tetrapod extinction event. Present are tritheledont and mammal-like reptiles, prosauropod, theropod, and ornithischian dinosaurs, protosuchian and sphenosuchian crocodylomorphs, sphenodontids, and hybodont, semionotid, and palaeonisciform fishes. All of the families are known from Late Triassic and Jurassic strata from elsewhere; however, pollen and spore, radiometric, and geochemical correlation indicate an early Hettangian age for these assemblages. Because all ``typical Triassic'' forms are absent from these assemblages, most Triassic-Jurassic tetrapod extinctions occurred before this time and without the introduction of new families. As was previously suggested by studies of marine invertebrates, this pattern is consistent with a global extinction event at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary. The Manicouagan impact structure of Quebec provides dates broadly compatible with the Triassic-Jurassic boundary and, following the impact theory of mass extinctions, may be implicated in the cause.

Generally Early Triassic floras are believed to be depauperate, suffering from protracted recovery following the Permian-Triassic extinction event. Here we present palynological data of an expanded East Greenland section documenting recovered floras in the basal Triassic (Griesbachian) and a subsequent fundamental floral turnover, postdating the Permian-Triassic boundary extinction by about 500 kyrs. This event is marked by a swap in dominating floral elements, changing from gymnosperm pollen-dominated associations in the Griesbachian to lycopsid spore-dominated assemblages in the Dienerian. This turnover coincides with an extreme δ(13)Corg negative shift revealing a severe environmental crisis, probably induced by volcanic outbursts of the Siberian Traps, accompanied by a climatic turnover, changing from cool and dry in the Griesbachian to hot and humid in the Dienerian. Estimates of sedimentation rates suggest that this environmental alteration took place within some 1000 years. Similar, coeval changes documented on the North Indian Margin (Pakistan) and the Bowen Basin (Australia) indicate the global extent of this crisis. Our results evidence the first profound disruption of the recovery of terrestrial environments about 500kyrs after the Permian-Triassic extinction event. It was followed by another crisis, about 1myrs later thus, the Early Triassic can be characterised as a time of successive environmental crises. PMID:27340926

Generally Early Triassic floras are believed to be depauperate, suffering from protracted recovery following the Permian–Triassic extinction event. Here we present palynological data of an expanded East Greenland section documenting recovered floras in the basal Triassic (Griesbachian) and a subsequent fundamental floral turnover, postdating the Permian–Triassic boundary extinction by about 500 kyrs. This event is marked by a swap in dominating floral elements, changing from gymnosperm pollen-dominated associations in the Griesbachian to lycopsid spore-dominated assemblages in the Dienerian. This turnover coincides with an extreme δ13Corg negative shift revealing a severe environmental crisis, probably induced by volcanic outbursts of the Siberian Traps, accompanied by a climatic turnover, changing from cool and dry in the Griesbachian to hot and humid in the Dienerian. Estimates of sedimentation rates suggest that this environmental alteration took place within some 1000 years. Similar, coeval changes documented on the North Indian Margin (Pakistan) and the Bowen Basin (Australia) indicate the global extent of this crisis. Our results evidence the first profound disruption of the recovery of terrestrial environments about 500kyrs after the Permian–Triassic extinction event. It was followed by another crisis, about 1myrs later thus, the Early Triassic can be characterised as a time of successive environmental crises.

The scaling properties of the time series of asset prices and trading volumes of stock markets are analysed. It is shown that similar to the asset prices, the trading volume data obey multi-scaling length-distribution of low-variability periods. In the case of asset prices, such scaling behaviour can be used for risk forecasts: the probability of observing next day a large price movement is (super-universally) inversely proportional to the length of the ongoing low-variability period. Finally, a method is devised for a multi-factor scaling analysis. We apply the simplest, two-factor model to equity index and trading volume time series.

Examining the geological past of our planet allows us to study periods of severe climatic and biological crises and recoveries, biotic and abiotic ecosystem fluctuations, and faunal and floral turnovers through time. Furthermore, the recovery dynamics of large predators provide a key for evaluation of the pattern and tempo of ecosystem recovery because predators are interpreted to react most sensitively to environmental turbulences. The end-Permian mass extinction was the most severe crisis experienced by life on Earth, and the common paradigm persists that the biotic recovery from the extinction event was unusually slow and occurred in a step-wise manner, lasting up to eight to nine million years well into the early Middle Triassic (Anisian) in the oceans, and even longer in the terrestrial realm. Here we survey the global distribution and size spectra of Early Triassic and Anisian marine predatory vertebrates (fishes, amphibians and reptiles) to elucidate the height of trophic pyramids in the aftermath of the end-Permian event. The survey of body size was done by compiling maximum standard lengths for the bony fishes and some cartilaginous fishes, and total size (estimates) for the tetrapods. The distribution and size spectra of the latter are difficult to assess because of preservation artifacts and are thus mostly discussed qualitatively. The data nevertheless demonstrate that no significant size increase of predators is observable from the Early Triassic to the Anisian, as would be expected from the prolonged and stepwise trophic recovery model. The data further indicate that marine ecosystems characterized by multiple trophic levels existed from the earliest Early Triassic onwards. However, a major change in the taxonomic composition of predatory guilds occurred less than two million years after the end-Permian extinction event, in which a transition from fish/amphibian to fish/reptile-dominated higher trophic levels within ecosystems became apparent. PMID

The end-Triassic mass extinction (~201.5 Ma), marked by major terrestrial ecosystem changes and a 50% loss in marine biodiversity, coincides with a distinct negative perturbation in marine C-isotope records. These events have been attributed to the onset of intensified volcanic activity in the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP), the largest igneous province on earth. However, global carbon cycle disruption has been questioned due to varying magnitudes of the observed negative excursion between different sedimentary basins. Here, we present compound specific C-isotope data of long-chain n-alkanes derived from waxes of land plants, showing a ~8.5‰ negative excursion coincident with the extinction interval. These data suggest strong 13C depletion of the end-Triassic atmosphere, within 10-20 kyr. The magnitude and rate of C-cycle disruption can only be explained by the injection of ~12x103 Gt of isotopically depleted carbon from the methane-hydrate reservoir. Concurrent vegetation changes reflect strong warming and an enhanced hydrological cycle. Hence the end-Triassic extinction is, for the first time, mechanistically linked to massive carbon release and associated climate change.

Anomalously high platinum group element concentrations have previously been reported for Upper Triassic deep-sea sediments, which are interpreted to be derived from an extraterrestrial impact event. Here we report the osmium (Os) isotope fingerprint of an extraterrestrial impact from Upper Triassic chert successions in Japan. Os isotope data exhibit a marked negative excursion from an initial Os isotope ratio ((187)Os/(188)Osi) of ~0.477 to unradiogenic values of ~0.126 in a platinum group element-enriched claystone layer, indicating the input of meteorite-derived Os into the sediments. The timing of the Os isotope excursion coincides with both elevated Os concentrations and low Re/Os ratios. The magnitude of this negative Os isotope excursion is comparable to those found at Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary sites. These geochemical lines of evidence demonstrate that a large impactor (3.3-7.8 km in diameter) produced a global decrease in seawater (187)Os/(188)Os ratios in the Late Triassic. PMID:24036603

Anomalously high platinum group element concentrations have previously been reported for Upper Triassic deep-sea sediments, which are interpreted to be derived from an extraterrestrial impact event. Here we report the osmium (Os) isotope fingerprint of an extraterrestrial impact from Upper Triassic chert successions in Japan. Os isotope data exhibit a marked negative excursion from an initial Os isotope ratio (187Os/188Osi) of ∼0.477 to unradiogenic values of ∼0.126 in a platinum group element-enriched claystone layer, indicating the input of meteorite-derived Os into the sediments. The timing of the Os isotope excursion coincides with both elevated Os concentrations and low Re/Os ratios. The magnitude of this negative Os isotope excursion is comparable to those found at Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary sites. These geochemical lines of evidence demonstrate that a large impactor (3.3–7.8 km in diameter) produced a global decrease in seawater 187Os/188Os ratios in the Late Triassic. PMID:24036603

Animal movement is often modelled on an individual level using simulated random walks. In such applications it is preferable that the properties of these random walks remain consistent when the choice of time is changed (timescale invariance). While this property is well understood in unbounded space, it has not been studied in detail for random walks in a confined domain. In this work we undertake an investigation of timescale invariance of the drift and diffusion rates of Brownian random walks subject to one of four simple boundary conditions. We find that timescale invariance is lost when the boundary condition is non-conservative, that is when movement (or individuals) is discarded due to boundary encounters. Where possible analytical results are used to describe the limits of the timescaling process, numerical results are then used to characterise the intermediate behaviour. PMID:25481837

Late Permian and principally Triassic detrital units play an important role in deciphering the geodynamic evolution of the East-Mediterranean area. Some of these units are related to diffuse rifting along the southern margin of Eurasia, whereas others reflect the Cimmerian collision between Gondwana and post-Variscan Eurasia-derived terranes. Several differences within these Triassic detrital units should be noted: they have a different timing of deposition, they are found in autochthonous, para-autochthonous or allochthonous position, and they have different types of substratum and cover series. In addition, the nature of the recycled material is also decisive to make the difference between orogen and rift-related sediments. The investigated sandstones, breccias and conglomerates usually range in age from the Anisian (Scythian?) to the Late Triassic (sometimes Liassic) and are especially well-developed during the Carnian-Norian interval. From the Late Permian to the Late Triassic, the Variscan Cordillera was affected by orogen-scale collapse, leading to widespread rifting, related to slab roll-back of the northward subducting Palaeotethys. This provoked the opening of a series of back-arc basins (i.e. Meliata-Hallstatt, Maliac and Pindos oceans). At the same time, this subduction detached by slab-pull a series of Cimmerian terranes along the northern border of Gondwana and opened the Neotethys to the south of them. The final closure of the Palaeotethys (Cimmerian Event) between the Taurus and the Anatolian terranes produced at places large flysch-molasse deposits often sealed by Jurassic platforms. In southern Europe, the diffuse rifting along the southern margin of Eurasia is recognized in the Carnic Alps. The Carboniferous fore-arc flysch basin (Hochwipfel and Dimon fms) is sealed by a shallow-water sequence of Pennsylvanian-Early Permian age (Pramolo, Rattendorf and Trogkofel groups). The Late Permian rifting is marked by the deposition of the Val Gardena

This paper identifies liquidity spillovers through different timescales based on a wavelet multiscaling method. We decompose daily data from U.S., British, Brazilian and Hong Kong stock markets indices in order to calculate the scale correlation between their illiquidities. The sample is divided in order to consider non-crisis, sub-prime crisis and Eurozone crisis. We find that there are changes in correlations of distinct scales and different periods. Association in finest scales is smaller than in coarse scales. There is a rise on associations in periods of crisis. In frequencies, there is predominance for significant distinctions involving the coarsest scale, while for crises periods there is predominance for distinctions on the finest scale. PMID:24465918

This paper identifies liquidity spillovers through different timescales based on a wavelet multiscaling method. We decompose daily data from U.S., British, Brazilian and Hong Kong stock markets indices in order to calculate the scale correlation between their illiquidities. The sample is divided in order to consider non-crisis, sub-prime crisis and Eurozone crisis. We find that there are changes in correlations of distinct scales and different periods. Association in finest scales is smaller than in coarse scales. There is a rise on associations in periods of crisis. In frequencies, there is predominance for significant distinctions involving the coarsest scale, while for crises periods there is predominance for distinctions on the finest scale. PMID:24465918

The atmospheric, hydrologic, and terrestrial components of the earth's systems operate on different time and space scales. Resolving these scaling incongruities as well as understanding and modeling the complex interaction of land surface processes at the different scales represents a major challenge for hydrologists, ecologists and meteorologists alike. This book presents the contributions of hydrologists, meteorologists, and ecologists to the first IHP/IAHS George Kovacs Colloqium on global hydrology and climate change. It deals with time and space scale variations with reference to several topics including soil water balance, ecosystems and interaction of flow systems, and macroscale hydrologic modeling. This book will be of great use to researchers, engineers and forecasters with an interest in space and timescale variability.

the Induan stage is 1.162 Ma, with the Griesbachian and Dienerian substage of 491ka and 671 ka, respectively. The new astronomical timescale also provides time constraints for the conodont and bivalve biozones, the carbonate carbon isotope (δ13C) records and magnetic polarity zones of the Lower Triassic Daye Formation. Time constraints for the conodont biozones include 34 ka for Hindeodus parvus , 24 ka for Isarcicella stachei-I. isarcica, 367 ka for Neogondolella planate-Ng. carinata, 66 ka for Neogondolella discreta, 255 ka for Neospathodus kummeli and 416 ka for Neospathodus dieneri. The Early Smithian negative δ13C shift near the Indun/Olenekian boundary may have happened within 430 ka. Global comparison indicates that Milankovitch and 4-5 ka sub-Milankovitch forcing depositional rhythms may have been common in tropical and sub-tropical carbonate platforms during Early and Middle Triassictime. The ultimate control on the 4-5 ka cycles may have been millennial-scale fluctuations in solar insolation.

Triassic vertebrate tracks are known from the beginning of the 19th century and have a worldwide distribution. Several Triassic track ichnoassemblages and ichnotaxa have a restricted stratigraphic range and are useful in biochronology and biostratigraphy. The record of Triassic tracks in the Iberian Peninsula has gone almost unnoticed although more than 25 localities have been described since 1897. In one of these localities, the naturalist Longinos Navás described the ichnotaxon Chirotherium ibericus in 1906.The vertebrate tracks are in two sandy slabs from the Anisian (Middle Triassic) of the Moncayo massif (Zaragoza, Spain). In a recent revision, new, previously undescribed vertebrate tracks have been identified. The tracks considered to be C. ibericus as well as other tracks with the same morphology from both slabs have been classified as Chirotherium barthii. The rest of the tracks have been assigned to Chirotheriidae indet., Rhynchosauroides isp. and undetermined material. This new identification of C. barthii at the Navás site adds new data to the Iberian record of this ichnotaxon, which is characterized by the small size of the tracks when compared with the main occurrences of this ichnotaxon elsewhere. As at the Navás tracksite, the Anisian C. barthii-Rhynchosauroides ichnoassemblage has been found in other coeval localities in Iberia and worldwide. This ichnoassemblage belongs to the upper Olenekian-lower Anisian interval according to previous biochronological proposals. Analysis of the Triassic Iberian record of tetrapod tracks is uneven in terms of abundance over time. From the earliest Triassic to the latest Lower Triassic the record is very scarce, with Rhynchosauroides being the only known ichnotaxon. Rhynchosauroides covers a wide temporal range and gives poor information for biochronology. The record from the uppermost Lower Triassic to the Middle Triassic is abundant. The highest ichnodiversity has been reported for the Anisian with an

The Kibble-Zurek (KZ) mechanism has been applied to a variety of systems ranging from low-temperature Bose-Einstein condensations to grand unification scales in particle physics and cosmology and from classical phase transitions to quantum phase transitions. Here, we show that finite-timescaling (FTS) provides a detailed improved understanding of the mechanism. In particular, the finite timescale, which is introduced by the external driving (or quenching) and results in FTS, is the origin of the division of the adiabatic regimes from the impulse regime in the KZ mechanism. The origin of the KZ scaling for the defect density, generated during the driving through a critical point, is not that the correlation length ceases growing in the nonadiabatic impulse regime, but rather, is that it is taken over by the effective finite length scale corresponding to the finite timescale. We also show that FTS accounts well for and improves the scaling ansatz proposed recently by Liu, Polkovnikov, and Sandvik, [Phys. Rev. B 89, 054307 (2014), 10.1103/PhysRevB.89.054307]. Further, we show that their universal power-law scaling form applies only to some observables in cooling but not to heating. Even in cooling, it is invalid either when an appropriate external field is present. However, this finite-time-finite-size scaling calls for caution in application of FTS. Detailed scaling behaviors of the FTS and finite-size scaling, along with their crossover, are explicitly demonstrated, with the dynamic critical exponent z being estimated for two- and three-dimensional Ising models under the usual Metropolis dynamics. These values of z are found to give rise to better data collapses than the extant values do in most cases but take on different values in heating and cooling in both two- and three-dimensional spaces.

Pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) is an optical pressure sensor that utilizes the oxygen quenching of luminescence. PSP measurements in unsteady aerodynamic flows require fast time response of the paint. There are two characteristic time-scales that are related to the time response of PSP. One is the luminescent lifetime representing an intrinsic physical limit for the achievable temporal resolution of PSP. Another is the time-scale of oxygen diffusion across the PSP layer. When the time-scale of oxygen diffusion is much larger than the luminescent lifetime, the time response of PSP is controlled by oxygen diffusion. In a thin homogenous polymer layer where diffusion is Fickian, the oxygen concentration 1021 can be described by the diffusion equation in one-dimension.

Molecular dynamics simulations of high-temperature annealing are performed on nanostructured materials enabling direct observation of vacancy emission from planar defects (i.e., grain boundaries and free surfaces) to populate the initially vacancy-free grain interiors on a subnanosecond timescale. We demonstrate a universal time-length scale correlation that governs these re-equilibration processes, suggesting that nanostructures are particularly stable against perturbations in their point-defect concentrations, caused for example by particle irradiation or temperature fluctuations.

Multi-scale entropy (MSE) was developed as a measure of complexity for complex time series, and it has been applied widely in recent years. The MSE algorithm is based on the assumption that biological systems possess the ability to adapt and function in an ever-changing environment, and these systems need to operate across multiple temporal and spatial scales, such that their complexity is also multi-scale and hierarchical. Here, we present a systematic approach to apply the empirical mode decomposition algorithm, which can detrend time series on various timescales, prior to analysing a signal's complexity by measuring the irregularity of its dynamics on multiple timescales. Simulated time series of fractal Gaussian noise and human heartbeat time series were used to study the performance of this new approach. We show that our method can successfully quantify the fractal properties of the simulated time series and can accurately distinguish modulations in human heartbeat time series in health and disease. PMID:26953181

Since the time of the Authors' study on this subject, a great deal of new information has become available. Concepts of the nature of extinctions have changed materially. The Authors' conclusion that a catastrophic event was not responsible for the extinction of vertebrates has modified to the extent that hypotheses involving either the impact of a massive extra-terrestrial body or volcanism provide plausible but not currently fully testable hypotheses. Stated changes resulted in a rapid decrease in organic diversity, as the ratio of origins of taxa to extinctions shifted from strongly positive to negative, with momentary equilibrium being reached at about the Permo-Triassic boundary. The proximate causes of the changes in the terrestrial biota appear to lie in two primary factors: (1) strong climatic changes (global mean temperatures, temperature ranges, humidity) and (2) susceptibility of the dominant vertebrates (large dicynodonts) and the glossopteris flora to disruption of the equlibrium of the world ecosystem. The following proximate causes have been proposed: (1) rhythmic fluctuations in solar radiation, (2) tectonic events as Pangea assembled, altering land-ocean relationships, patterns of wind and water circulation and continental physiography, (3) volcanism, and (4) changes subsequent to impacts of one or more massive extra terrestrial objects, bodies or comets. These hypotheses are discussed.

The Institute of Metrology for Time and Space NPO 'VNIIFTRI' generates the National TimeScale (NTS) of Russia -- one of the most stable timescales in the world. Its striking feature is that it is based on a free ensemble of H-masers only. During last two years the estimations of NTS longterm stability based only on H-maser intercomparison data gives a flicker floor of about (2 to 3) x 10(exp -15) for averaging times from 1 day to 1 month. Perhaps the most significant feature for a time laboratory is an extremely low possible frequency drift -- it is too difficult to estimate it reliably. The other estimations, free from possible inside the ensemble correlation phenomena, are available based on the time comparison of NTS relative to the stable enough timescale of outer laboratories. The data on NTS comparison relative to the timescale of secondary time and frequency standards at Golitzino and Irkutsk in Russia and relative to NIST, PTB and USNO using GLONASS and GPS time transfer links gives stability estimations which are close to that based on H-maser intercomparisons.

We use a method based on a statistical geomagnetic field model to recognize and correct for inclination error in sedimentary rocks from early Mesozoic rift basins in North America, Greenland, and Europe. The congruence of the corrected sedimentary results and independent data from igneous rocks on a regional scale indicates that a geocentric axial dipole field operated in the Late Triassic. The corrected paleolatitudes indicate a faster poleward drift of approximately 0.6 degrees per million years for this part of Pangea and suggest that the equatorial humid belt in the Late Triassic was about as wide as it is today. PMID:15653500

Triassic tetrapods are of key importance in understanding their evolutionary history, because several tetrapod clades, including most of their modern lineages, first appeared or experienced their initial evolutionary radiation during this Period. In order to test previous palaeobiogeographical hypotheses of Triassic tetrapod faunas, tree reconciliation analyses (TRA) were performed with the aim of recovering biogeographical patterns based on phylogenetic signals provided by a composite tree of Middle and Late Triassic tetrapods. The TRA found significant evidence for the presence of different palaeobiogeographical patterns during the analysed time spans. First, a Pangaean distribution is observed during the Middle Triassic, in which several cosmopolitan tetrapod groups are found. During the early Late Triassic a strongly palaeolatitudinally influenced pattern is recovered, with some tetrapod lineages restricted to palaeolatitudinal belts. During the latest Triassic, Gondwanan territories were more closely related to each other than to Laurasian ones, with a distinct tetrapod fauna at low palaeolatitudes. Finally, more than 75 per cent of the cladogenetic events recorded in the tetrapod phylogeny occurred as sympatric splits or within-area vicariance, indicating that evolutionary processes at the regional level were the main drivers in the radiation of Middle and Late Triassic tetrapods and the early evolution of several modern tetrapod lineages. PMID:20392730

For assessment of variability and trends in the Earth Radiation Balance, information is needed at climatic timescales. Satellite observations have been instrumental for advancing the understanding of radiative balance at global scale, however, the length of available satellite records is limited due to the frequent changes in the observing systems. In this paper we report on an effort to synthesize satellite observations from independent sources to estimates shortwave and longwave surface radiative fluxes at climatic timescales and use them to learn about their variability and trends at global scale with a focus on the tropics. An attempt will be made to learn from the comparison about possible causes of observed trends. The radiative fluxes were derived in the framework of the MEaSURES and NEWS programs; they are evaluated against ground observations and compared to independent satellite and model estimates. Attention is given to updated knowledge on radiative balance as compared to what is known from shorter time records.

Geological age estimates are provided by diverse chronometers, such as radiometric measurements, astrochronology, and the spacing of magnetic anomalies recorded on mid-ocean ridges by seafloor spreading. These age estimates are affected by errors that can be systematic (e.g., biased radiometric dates due to imperfect assumptions) or random (e.g., imprecise recording of astronomical cycles in sedimentary records). Whereas systematic errors can be reduced by improvements in technique and calibration, uncertainties due to random errors will always be present and need to be dealt with. A Bayesian framework can be used to construct an integrated timescale that is based on several uncertain sources of information. In this framework, each piece of data and the final timescale have an associated probability distribution that describes their uncertainty. The key calculation is to determine the uncertainty in the timescale from the uncertain data that constrain it. In practice, this calculation can be performed by Monte Carlo sampling. In Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms, the timescale is iteratively perturbed and the perturbed timescale is accepted or rejected depending on how closely it fits the data. The final result is a large ensemble of possible timescales that are consistent with all the uncertain data; while the average of this ensemble defines a 'best' timescale, the ensemble variability quantifies the timescale uncertainty. An example of this approach is the M-sequence (Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous, ~160-120 Ma) MHTC12 geomagnetic polarity timescale (GPTS) of Malinverno et al. (2012, J. Geophys. Res., B06104, doi:10.1029/2012JB009260). Previous GPTSs were constructed by interpolating between dated marine magnetic anomalies while assuming constant or smoothly varying spreading rates. These GPTSs were typically based on magnetic lineations from one or a few selected spreading centers, and an undesirable result is that they imply larger spreading rate

We discuss multiple-timescale properties of neurophysiological control mechanisms, using heart rate and gait regulation as model systems. We find that scaling exponents can be used as prognostic indicators. Furthermore, detection of more subtle degradation of scaling properties may provide a novel early warning system in subjects with a variety of pathologies including those at high risk of sudden death.

The formation of network structure is mainly influenced by an individual node's activity and its memory, where activity can usually be interpreted as the individual inherent property and memory can be represented by the interaction strength between nodes. In our study, we define the activity through the appearance pattern in the time-aggregated network representation, and quantify the memory through the contact pattern of empirical temporal networks. To address the role of activity and memory in epidemics on time-varying networks, we propose temporal-pattern coarsening of activity-driven growing networks with memory. In particular, we focus on the relation between time-scale coarsening and spreading dynamics in the context of dynamic scaling and finite-size scaling. Finally, we discuss the universality issue of spreading dynamics on time-varying networks for various memory-causality tests.

A red-bed facies of the Upper Triassic Jurong Formation has been logged on Sentosa Island, Singapore. An overall coarsening and thickening-upward pattern is well developed. The lower part of the section is dominated by purple-red, massive to finely laminated illite-smectite-kaolin-rich mudstones containing thin, discontinuous lenses of fine sandstone marked by low-angle lamination and small ripples. One dinosaur-like foot print has been discovered in a loose block of red mudstone. It is concluded that this is a lacustrine sequence and it is proposed to name the lake, Lake Sentosa. The upper part of the sequence consists of flat-laminated to trough cross-bedded medium-grained sandstone and granule to cobble conglomerates alternating with purple-red mudstone. The mudstone-sandstone packages are arranged in decametre-scale coarsening-upward cycles. The channelling and decimetre-scale cross-bedding characterising the sandstone and conglomeratic beds is evidence for deposition by flashy fluvial flood processes, possibly feeding into the lake as a fresh water delta. One possible dinosaur trackway in granule size conglomerate has been located. Detrital zircon U-Pb ages vary from 2.7 Ba to 209 Ma with significant populations at ˜245 Ma and 220 Ma. These ages throw light on the timing of the Indosinian Orogeny. The molasse red-beds of the Jurong Formation were deposited in a half graben formed in the hangingwall of the Bukit Timah Fault when central Peninsular Malaysia went into extension following the climax of the Indosinian Orogeny in the Late Triassic.

Development time is a critical life-history trait that has profound effects on organism fitness and on population growth rates. For ectotherms, development time is strongly influenced by temperature and is predicted to scale with body mass to the quarter power based on 1) the ontogenetic growth model of the metabolic theory of ecology which describes a bioenergetic balance between tissue maintenance and growth given the scaling relationship between metabolism and body size, and 2) numerous studies, primarily of vertebrate endotherms, that largely support this prediction. However, few studies have investigated the allometry of development time among invertebrates, including insects. Abundant data on development of diverse insects provides an ideal opportunity to better understand the scaling of development time in this ecologically and economically important group. Insects develop more quickly at warmer temperatures until reaching a minimum development time at some optimal temperature, after which development slows. We evaluated the allometry of insect development time by compiling estimates of minimum development time and optimal developmental temperature for 361 insect species from 16 orders with body mass varying over nearly 6 orders of magnitude. Allometric scaling exponents varied with the statistical approach: standardized major axis regression supported the predicted quarter-power scaling relationship, but ordinary and phylogenetic generalized least squares did not. Regardless of the statistical approach, body size alone explained less than 28% of the variation in development time. Models that also included optimal temperature explained over 50% of the variation in development time. Warm-adapted insects developed more quickly, regardless of body size, supporting the “hotter is better” hypothesis that posits that ectotherms have a limited ability to evolutionarily compensate for the depressing effects of low temperatures on rates of biological processes

A classic problem in physics is the analysis of highly nonstationary time series that typically exhibit long-range correlations. Here we test the hypothesis that the scaling properties of the dynamics of healthy physiological systems are more stable than those of pathological systems by studying beat-to-beat fluctuations in the human heart rate. We develop techniques based on the Fano factor and Allan factor functions, as well as on detrended fluctuation analysis, for quantifying deviations from uniform power-law scaling in nonstationary time series. By analyzing extremely long data sets of up to N = 10(5) beats for 11 healthy subjects, we find that the fluctuations in the heart rate scale approximately uniformly over several temporal orders of magnitude. By contrast, we find that in data sets of comparable length for 14 subjects with heart disease, the fluctuations grow erratically, indicating a loss of scaling stability.

We construct three-dimensional space Rγ3 with the scale-dependent metric and the corresponding Minkowski space-time Mγ,β4 with the scale-dependent fractal (DH) and spectral (DS) dimensions. The local derivatives based on scale-dependent metrics are defined and differential vector calculus in Rγ3 is developed. We state that Mγ,β4 provides a unified phenomenological framework for dimensional flow observed in quite different models of quantum gravity. Nevertheless, the main attention is focused on the special case of flat space-time M1/3,14 with the scale-dependent Cantor-dust-like distribution of admissible states, such that DH increases from DH=2 on the scale ≪ℓ0 to DH=4 in the infrared limit ≫ℓ0, where ℓ0 is the characteristic length (e.g. the Planck length, or characteristic size of multi-fractal features in heterogeneous medium), whereas DS≡4 in all scales. Possible applications of approach based on the scale-dependent metric to systems of different nature are briefly discussed.

Biological networks display a variety of activity patterns reflecting a web of interactions that is complex both in space and time. Yet inference methods have mainly focused on reconstructing, from the network's activity, the spatial structure, by assuming equilibrium conditions or, more recently, a probabilistic dynamics with a single arbitrary time-step. Here we show that, under this latter assumption, the inference procedure fails to reconstruct the synaptic matrix of a network of integrate-and-fire neurons when the chosen timescale of interaction does not closely match the synaptic delay or when no single timescale for the interaction can be identified; such failure, moreover, exposes a distinctive bias of the inference method that can lead to infer as inhibitory the excitatory synapses with interaction timescales longer than the model's time-step. We therefore introduce a new two-step method, that first infers through cross-correlation profiles the delay-structure of the network and then reconstructs the synaptic matrix, and successfully test it on networks with different topologies and in different activity regimes. Although step one is able to accurately recover the delay-structure of the network, thus getting rid of any a priori guess about the timescales of the interaction, the inference method introduces nonetheless an arbitrary timescale, the time-bin dt used to binarize the spike trains. We therefore analytically and numerically study how the choice of dt affects the inference in our network model, finding that the relationship between the inferred couplings and the real synaptic efficacies, albeit being quadratic in both cases, depends critically on dt for the excitatory synapses only, whilst being basically independent of it for the inhibitory ones. PMID:25807389

The Triassic Period was punctuated by two of the largest Phanerozoic mass-extinctions and witnessed the evolution of elements of the modern biota and the advent of the age of dinosaurs. A rich archive of biotic and environmental changes on land for the early Mesozoic is on the Colorado Plateau, which despite over 100 years of study still remains poorly calibrated in time and poorly registered to other global records. Over 15 years ago, a diverse team of scientists began to develop the concept of a multi-phase, long term Colorado Plateau Coring Project (CPCP). Planning involved two major meetings (DOSECC/NSFICDP supported in Fall, 2007, St. George, UT; and International Continental Drilling Program (ICDP) supported in Spring, 2009, Albuquerque, NM). The National Park Service embraced the concept of Phase One drilling at Petrified Forest National Park (PFNP) in northern Arizona, which exposes one of the most famous and best studied successions of the continental Triassic on Earth, and the Phase One target was decided. Most drilling operation costs were secured from ICDP in Summer, 2010. In late 2013, following more recent NSF support, the research team, utilizing Ruen Drilling Inc., drilled a continuous ~530 m core (60o plunge) through the entire section of Triassic strata (Chinle and Moenkopi fms.) in the north end and a ~240 m core (75o plunge) in lower Chinle and all Moenkopi strata at the south end of the PFNP. Our continuous sampling will place this record in a reliable quantitative and exportable timescale, as a reference section in which magnetostratigraphic, geochronologic, environmental, and paleontologic data are registered to a common thickness scale with unambiguous superposition using pristine samples. The cores are being scanned at the High Resolution X-ray Computed Tomography Facility at UT Austin. They will be transported to the LacCore National Lacustrine Core Facility at U Minnesota, where they will be split, imaged, and scanned for several

Tuning the Vostok methane signal to mid-July 30°N insolation yields a new ice-core gas timescale. This exercise has two rationales: (1) evidence supporting Kutzbach's theory that low-latitude summer insolation in the northern hemisphere controls the strength of tropical monsoons, and (2) interhemispheric CH 4 gradients showing that the main control of orbital-scale CH 4 variations is tropical (monsoonal) sources. The immediate basis for tuning CH 4 to mid-July insolation is the coincident timing of the most recent (pre-anthropogenic) CH 4 maximum at 11,000-10,500 calendar years ago and the most recent July 30°N insolation maximum (all ages in this paper are in calendar years unless specified as 14C years). The resulting CH 4 gas timescale diverges by as much as 15,000 years from the GT4 gas timescale (Petit et al., Nature 399 (1999) 429) prior to 250,000 years ago, but it matches fairly closely a timescale derived by tuning ice-core δ18O atm to a lagged insolation signal (Shackleton, Science 289 (2000) 1897). Most offsets between the CH 4 and δ18O atm timescales can be explained by assuming that tropical monsoons and ice sheets alternate in controlling the phase of the δ18O atm signal. The CH 4 timescale provides an estimate of the timing of the Vostok CO 2 signal against SPECMAP marine δ18O, often used as an index of global ice volume. On the CH 4 timescale, all CO 2 responses are highly coherent with SPECMAP δ18O at the orbital periods. CO 2 leads δ18O by 5000 years at 100,000 years (eccentricity), but the two signals are nearly in-phase at 41,000 years (obliquity) and 23,000 years (precession). The actual phasing between CO 2 and ice volume is difficult to infer because of likely SST overprints on the SPECMAP δ18O signal. CO 2 could lead, or be in phase with, ice volume, but is unlikely to lag behind the ice response.

For assessment of variability and trends in the Earth Radiation Balance, information is needed at climatic timescales. Satellite observations have been instrumental for advancing the understanding of the radiative balance at global scale, however, due to the frequent changes in the observing systems, the length of available satellite records is limited. In this paper we report on an effort to synthesize satellite observations from independent sources to estimates shortwave, longwave and spectral surface radiative fluxes at climatic timescales and use them to learn about their variability and trends. The radiative fluxes were derived in the framework of the MEaSURES and NEWS programs; they are evaluated against ground observations and compared to independent satellite and model estimates. Attention is given to updates on the radiative balance as compared to what is known from shorter time records and from models.

Segregation patterns in natural granular systems offer a singular picture of the systems evolution. In many cases, understanding segregation dynamics may help understanding the system's history as well as its future evolution. Among the key questions, one concerns the typical time-scales at which segregation occurs. In this contribution, we present model granular flows simulated by means of the discrete Contact Dynamics method. The granular flows are bi-disperse, namely exhibiting two grain sizes. The flow composition and its dynamics are systematically varied, and the segregation dynamics carefully analyzed. We propose a physical model for the segregation that gives account of the observed dependence of segregation timescales on composition and dynamics. References L. Staron and J. C. Phillips, Stress partition and micro-structure in size-segregating granular flows, Phys. Rev. E 92 022210 (2015) L. Staron and J. C. Phillips, Segregation time-scales in bi-disperse granular flows, Phys. Fluids 26 (3), 033302 (2014)

During the past twenty years, the timescale at the IEN has been realized by a commercial cesium clock, selected from an ensemble of five, whose rate has been continuously steered towards UTC to maintain a long term agreement within 3 x 10(exp -13). A timescale algorithm, suitable for a small clock ensemble and capable of improving the medium and long term stability of the IEN timescale, has been recently designed taking care of reducing the effects of the seasonal variations and the sudden frequency anomalies of the single cesium clocks. The new timescale, TA(IEN), is obtained as a weighted average of the clock ensemble computed once a day from the time comparisons between the local reference UTC(IEN) and the single clocks. It is foreseen to include in the computation also ten cesium clocks maintained in other Italian laboratories to further improve its reliability and its long term stability. To implement this algorithm, a personal computer program in Quick Basic has been prepared and it has been tested at the IEN time and frequency laboratory. Results obtained using this algorithm on the real clocks data relative to a period of about two years are presented.

Scaling invariance of time series has been making great contributions in diverse research fields. But how to evaluate scaling exponent from a real-world series is still an open problem. Finite length of time series may induce unacceptable fluctuation and bias to statistical quantities and consequent invalidation of currently used standard methods. In this paper a new concept called correlation-dependent balanced estimation of diffusion entropy is developed to evaluate scale-invariance in very short time series with length . Calculations with specified Hurst exponent values of show that by using the standard central moving average de-trending procedure this method can evaluate the scaling exponents for short time series with ignorable bias () and sharp confidential interval (standard deviation ). Considering the stride series from ten volunteers along an approximate oval path of a specified length, we observe that though the averages and deviations of scaling exponents are close, their evolutionary behaviors display rich patterns. It has potential use in analyzing physiological signals, detecting early warning signals, and so on. As an emphasis, the our core contribution is that by means of the proposed method one can estimate precisely shannon entropy from limited records. PMID:25549356

Polymer properties depend on a wide range of coupled length and timescales, with unique macroscopic viscoelastic behavior stemming from interactions at the atomistic level. The need to probe polymers across time and length scales and particularly computational modeling is inherently challenging. Here new paths to probing long time and length scales including introducing interactions into traditional bead-spring models and coarse graining of atomistic simulations will be compared and discussed. Using linear polyethylene as a model system, the degree of coarse graining with two to six methylene groups per coarse-grained bead derived from a fully atomistic melt simulation were probed. We show that the degree of coarse graining affects the measured dynamic. Using these models we were successful in probing highly entangled melts and were able reach the long-time diffusive regime which is computationally inaccessible using atomistic simulations. We simulated the relaxation modulus and shear viscosity of well-entangled polyethylene melts for scaledtimes of 500 µs. Results for plateau modulus are in good agreement with experiment. The long time and length scale is coupled to the macroscopic viscoelasticity where the degree of coarse graining sets the minimum length scale instrumental in defining polymer properties and dynamics. Results will be compared to those obtained from simple bead-spring models to demonstrate the additional insight that can be gained from atomistically inspired coarse grained models. Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.

Magma mixing is widely recognized as a means of producing compositional diversity and preconditioning magmas for eruption. However, the processes and associated timescales that produce the commonly observed expressions of magma mixing are poorly understood, especially under crystal-rich conditions. Here we introduce and exemplify a parameterized method to predict the characteristic mixing time of crystals in a crystal-rich magma mush that is subject to open-system reintrusion events. Our approach includes novel numerical simulations that resolve multiphase particle-fluid interactions. It also quantifies the crystal mixing by calculating both the local and system-wide progressive loss of the spatial correlation of individual crystals throughout the mixing region. Both inertial and viscous timescales for bulk mixing are introduced. Estimated mixing times are compared to natural examples and the time for basaltic mush systems to become well mixed can be on the order of 10 days.

Analytical solutions are obtained for nonlinear differential equations governing the time-dependence of molecular abundances in interstellar clouds. Three gas-phase reaction schemes are considered separately for the regions where each dominates. The particular case of CO, and closely related members of the Oh and CH families of molecules, is studied for given values of temperature, density, and the radiation field. Nonlinear effects and couplings with particular ions are found to be important. The timescales for CO formation range from 100,000 to a few million years, depending on the chemistry and regime. The time required for essentially complete conversion of C(+) to CO in the region where the H3(+) chemistry dominates is several million years. Because this time is longer than or comparable to dynamical timescales for dense interstellar clouds, steady-state abundances may not be observed in such clouds.

Three-dimensional geological modeling of the Middle Triassic Latemar carbonate platform is coupled with facies modal analysis to estimate its carbonate precipitation rate (G). The 3D model, strongly constrained by field data, encompasses a specific stratigraphic interval of the platform, bounded by two isochronous surfaces. Modal analysis of thin sections allows estimating the proportion of syndepositional vs postdepositional carbonate in the facies associations of the platform. This, together with the 3D facies distribution in the model that takes into account lateral and vertical facies variability, permits to calculate the volumes of syndepositional carbonate preserved at Latemar between the two considered isochrones. Given the peculiar characteristics of the platform, that does not show evidences of strong dissolution processes or large carbonate mass loss through export in the nearby basins, results can be used to estimate the average precipitation rate of the platform in the considered time interval. This estimate allows discussion in relation to models of ocean water saturation state (Ω) with respect to carbonates in the geological past, and comparison to the calculated precipitation rates of modern tropical coral reef ecosystems at global and reef scale. A high G value is found at Latemar and represents the first empirical confirmation that, in the Triassic, extremes in Ω may have triggered high carbonate precipitation in shallow water settings; moreover, comparison to modern reefs points to a possible common relationship that may link seawater Ω and precipitation rate in carbonate platform ecosystems through geological time.

In this paper, the dynamics symmetries of Hamiltonian system on timescales are studied. We study the symmetries and quantities based on the calculation of variation and Lie transformation group. Particular focus lies in: the Noether symmetry leads to the Noether conserved quantity and the Lie symmetry leads to the Noether conserved quantity if the infinitesimal transformations satisfy the structure equation. As the new application of result, at end of the article, we give a simple example of Noether symmetry and Lie symmetry on timescales.

The biological extinction that occurred at the Permian-Triassic boundary represents the most extensive loss of species of any known event of the past 550 million years. There have been a wide variety of explanations offered for this extinction. In the present paper, a number of the more popular recent hypotheses are evaluated in terms of predictions that they make, or that they imply, concerning the global carbon cycle. For this purpose, a mass balance model is used that calculates atmospheric CO2 and oceanic delta13C as a function of time. Hypotheses considered include: (i) the release of massive amounts of CO2 from the ocean to the atmosphere resulting in mass poisoning; (ii) the release of large amounts of CO2 from volcanic degassing; (iii) the release of methane stored in methane hydrates; (iv) the decomposition and oxidation of dead organisms to CO2 after sudden mass mortality; and (v) the long-term reorganization of the global carbon cycle. The modeling indicates that measured short-term changes in delta13C at the boundary are best explained by methane release with mass mortality and volcanic degassing contributing in secondary roles. None of the processes result in excessively high levels of atmospheric CO2 if they occurred on timescales of more than about 1,000 years. The idea of poisoning by high levels of atmospheric CO2 depends on the absence of subthermocline calcium carbonate deposition during the latest Permian. The most far-reaching effect was found to be reorganization of the carbon cycle with major sedimentary burial of organic matter shifting from the land to the sea, resulting in less burial overall, decreased atmospheric O2, and higher atmospheric CO2 for the entire Triassic Period. PMID:11917102

A reproducible geomagnetic polarity template for the Late Triassic and earliest Jurassic continues to be that determined from ~5,000 meters of cored section in the Newark basin and ~2,500 meters of outcrop section in the Hartford basin, sampled at nominal ~20 kyr intervals according to a well-developed climate cyclicity that characterizes the lacustrine strata present in all but the fluviatile portions of the basins [Kent & Olsen, 1999, 2008 JGR]. The age model is based on the 405 kyr Milankovich climate cycle and pegging the sequence to high precision U-Pb dating of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) at 201.6 to 200.9 Ma [Blackburn+2013 Science], the initiation of which is practically coincident with the end-Triassic extinction level (formerly set to 202 Ma) and within a climatic precession cycle after magnetochron E23r. The resulting astrochronostratigraphic polarity timescale (APTS) has 66 Poisson-distributed polarity intervals from chrons E8r (~225 Ma) to H27n (~199 Ma) with a constant sediment-accumulation rate extrapolation to chron E1r (~233 Ma). Magnetostratigraphic correlations from the most complete and usually the thickest Tethyan marine sections suggest that the Carnian/Norian boundary occurs within ~E7n [Channell+2003 PPP; Muttoni+2004 GSAB] at an APTS age of 227.5 Ma and for the Norian/Rhaetian boundary anywhere from E16n [Husing+2011 EPSL] at ~210.5 Ma to E20r [Maron+2014 Geology] at ~205.4 Ma depending on choice of conodont taxa, whereas the Hettangian/Sinemurian boundary can be placed at ~199.5 Ma within the marine equivalent of H25r [Husing+2014 EPSL]. These APTS ages are in substantive agreement with available high-precision dates in marine strata for the late Carnian [231 Ma: Furin+2006 Geology], latest Norian [205.5 Ma: Wotslaw+2014 Geology], and the boundaries of the Triassic/Jurassic [201.3 Ma: Guex+2012 PPP] and the Hettangian/Sinemurian [199.5 Ma: Schaltegger+2008 EPSL]. Carnian magnetostratigraphy needs to be improved but

Tetrapod skeletons recently found in the Fremouw Formation in the Shackleton Glacier area, Transantarctic Mountains, include several forms that closely compare to South African species. Faunal similarities that confirm a close connection between Antarctica and Africa during the Triassic Period lend further support to the concept of Gondwanaland and continental drift. PMID:17755654

Using molecular geochemistry techniques, we established that the Perledo-Verenna and Meride Formations (Middle Triassic, southern Alps) represent the source rocks of the Gaggiano and Villafortuna deep oil fields discovered 40 km northwest of Milan. To find the geological factors which control the areal extent thickness and organic matter distribution relative to these sequences, a sedimentological and geochemical study was undertaken.

In the real world, there are many phenomena that are derived from deterministic systems but which fluctuate with nonuniform time intervals. This paper discusses the appropriate timescales that can be applied to such systems to analyze their properties. The financial markets are an example of such systems wherein price movements fluctuate with nonuniform time intervals. However, it is common to apply uniform timescales such as 1-min data and 1-h data to study price movements. This paper examines the validity of such timescales by using surrogate data tests to ascertain whether the deterministic properties of the original system can be identified from uniform sampled data. The results show that uniform time samplings are often inappropriate for nonlinear analyses. However, for other systems such as neural spikes and Internet traffic packets, which produce similar outputs, uniform time samplings are quite effective in extracting the system properties. Nevertheless, uniform samplings often generate overlapping data, which can cause false rejections of surrogate data tests.

Late Triassic bivalves of the genus Monotis occur in at least 16 of the lithotectonic terranes and subterranes that together comprise nearly all of Alaska, and they also occur in the Upper Yukon region of Alaska where Triassic strata are regarded as representing non-accretionary North America. On the basis of collections made thus far, 14 kinds of Monotis that differ at the species or subspecies level can be recognized from alaska. These are grouped into the subgenera Monotis (Monotis), M. (Pacimonotis), M. (Entomonotis), and M. (Eomonotis). In places, Monotis shells of one kind or another occur in rock-forming abundance. On the basis of superpositional data from Alaska, as well as from elsewhere in North America and Far Eastern Russia, at least four distince biostratigraphic levels can be discriminated utilizing Monotis species. Different species of M. (Eomonotis) characterize two middle Norian levels, both probably within the supper middle Norian Columbianus Ammonite Zone. Two additional levels are recognized in the lower upper Norian Cordilleranus Ammonite Zone utilizing species of M. (Monotis) or M. (Entomonotis), both of which subgenera are restricted to the late Norian. An attached-floating mode of life is commonly attributed to Monotis; thus, these bivalves would have been pseudoplanktonic surface dwellers that were sensitive to surface-water temperature and paleolatitude. Distinctly different kinds of Monotis occur at different paleolatitudes along the Pacific and Arctic margins of the North American craton inboard of the accreted terranes. Comparison between thse craton-bound Monotis faunas and those of the Alaskan terranes in southern Alaska south of the Denali fault were paleoequatorial in latitude during Late Triassictime. Among these terranes, the Alexander terrane was possibly in the southern hemisphere at that time. Terranes of northern Alaska, on the other hand, represent middle, possibly high-middle, northern paleolatitudes.

We provide detailed modeling of the Bragg pulse used in quantum Newton's-cradle-like settings or in Bragg spectroscopy experiments for strongly repulsive bosons in one dimension. We reconstruct the postpulse time evolution and study the time-dependent local density profile and momentum distribution by a combination of exact techniques. We further provide a variety of results for finite interaction strengths using a time-dependent Hartree-Fock analysis and bosonization-refermionization techniques. Our results display a clear separation of timescales between rapid and trap-insensitive relaxation immediately after the pulse, followed by slow in-trap periodic behavior. PMID:27314723

We provide detailed modeling of the Bragg pulse used in quantum Newton's-cradle-like settings or in Bragg spectroscopy experiments for strongly repulsive bosons in one dimension. We reconstruct the postpulse time evolution and study the time-dependent local density profile and momentum distribution by a combination of exact techniques. We further provide a variety of results for finite interaction strengths using a time-dependent Hartree-Fock analysis and bosonization-refermionization techniques. Our results display a clear separation of timescales between rapid and trap-insensitive relaxation immediately after the pulse, followed by slow in-trap periodic behavior.

An investigation is made of the problem of predicting the attitude of satellites under the influence of external disturbing torques. The attitude dynamics are first expressed in a perturbation formulation which is then solved by the multiple scales approach. The independent variable, time, is extended into new scales, fast, slow, etc., and the integration is carried out separately in the new variables. The theory is applied to two different satellite configurations, rigid body and dual spin, each of which may have an asymmetric mass distribution. The disturbing torques considered are gravity gradient and geomagnetic. Finally, as multiple timescales approach separates slow and fast behaviors of satellite attitude motion, this property is used for the design of an attitude control device. A nutation damping control loop, using the geomagnetic torque for an earth pointing dual spin satellite, is designed in terms of the slow equation.

Ammonoids and conodonts, being characterized by exceptionally high background rates of origination and extinction, were vulnerable to global environmental crises, which characteristically intensified background rates of extinction. Thus, it is not surprising that these taxa suffered conspicuous mass extinctions at the times of three negative Early Triassic global carbon isotopic excursions that resembled those associated with the two preceding Permian mass extinctions. In keeping with their high rates of origination, both the ammonoids and conodonts rediversified dramatically between the Early Triassic crises. Other marine taxa, characterized by much lower intrinsic rates of origination, were held at low levels of diversity by the Early Triassic crises; because global mass extinctions affect all marine life, these taxa must have experienced relatively modest expansions and contractions that have yet to be discovered, because they do not stand out in the fossil record and because the stratigraphic ranges of these taxa, being of little value for temporal correlation, have not been thoroughly studied. PMID:19721005

The comparative study of two timescale algorithms, devised to satisfy different but related requirements, is presented. They are ALGOS(BIPM), producing the international reference TAI at the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures, and AT1(NIST), generating the real-timetimescale AT1 at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. In each case, the timescale is a weighted average of clock readings, but the weight determination and the frequency prediction are different because they are adapted to different purposes. The possibility of using a mathematical tool, such as the Kalman filter, together with the definition of the timescale as a weighted average, is also analyzed. Results obtained by simulation are presented.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine speech compensation in response to time-scale-modified auditory feedback during the transition of the semivowel for a target utterance of /ija/. Method: Each utterance session consisted of 10 control trials in the normal feedback condition followed by 20 perturbed trials in the modified auditory…

We study the formation of Bañados-Teitelboim-Zanelli black holes by the collision of point particles. It is shown that the Gott time machine, originally constructed for the case of vanishing cosmological constant, provides a precise mechanism for black hole formation. As a result, one obtains an exact analytic understanding of the Choptuik scaling.

In the early Mesozoic rift basins of eastern North America, CAMP lava flows occur within normal polarity Chron E24n, which according to cycle stratigraphy has a duration of nearly four McLaughlin (405 kyr) cycles, or ~1.6 Ma. In the Newark basin, the level marking the end-Triassic extinction event occurs one Van Houten cycle (20 kyr) before the first CAMP basalt and is preceded within another Van Houten cycle by reverse polarity Chron E23r, one of the shortest (~25 kyr) polarity intervals recognized in the Newark astronomically-tune polarity timescale. This tight chronostratigraphic sequence of events-E23r followed by end-Triassic event and then CAMP lavas within E24n-has been replicated in several sections [1] and a key element (end-Triassic palynofloral turnover preceding the first CAMP lava) is recorded in the Fundy basin of Nova Scotia, where the initial CAMP eruption (North Mountain Basalt) has a rather precise U-Pb (206Pb/238U) zircon date of 201.27± 0.03 Ma [2]. However, two magnetic excursions were found within the Intermediate Basalt (39Ar/40Ar date of 199.9± 0.5 Ma) in the Central High Atlas Mountains of Morocco and correlated to E23r [3, 4], which would imply that the underlying (Lower) basalt unit occurred before and therefore in a possible causal relationship to the end-Triassic extinction event. Paleomagnetic study of the Moroccan basalts also revealed variations in magnetic directions, which were interpreted as a record of secular variation and thus might prove useful for identification of CAMP lavas [4]. We sampled most of the lava flows in the Fundy basin that comprise the ~300 m-thick North Mountain Basalt in outcrop (30 sites) as well as in several industry cores drilled near Margaretsville (GAV-77-3, AV-C-1-4), Freeport (AV-C-1-1), and Westport (AV-C-1-2) in Nova Scotia. We find only two directional groupings for the entire North Mountain Basalt, a finding that basically confirms the results of Carmichael and Palmer [5]. We have yet to find

The end-Triassic mass extinction event (201.564 Ma) was synchronous with the earliest volcanic phase during the emplacement of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP), a large igneous province (LIP) formed during the initial breakup of Pangea. Volcanic degassing of CO2 and other volatile gases, and/or thermogenic methane, from the CAMP is generally regarded as the main cause of the end-Triassic biotic crisis. However, discrepancies in the durations of the ETE (50 Kyrs) and the CAMP volcanism (600 Kyrs) as well as temporal offsets between carbon cycle perturbations and biotic turnovers suggest a more complex scenario that require further studies of the temporal succession of events in Triassic-Jurassic (TJ) boundary strata. Here, we present and examine multiple episodes of soft-sediment deformation (seismite) within uppermost Rhaetian marine and terrestrial strata of Denmark, Sweden and Germany. These seismites are stratigraphically constrained by palynology and C-isotopes to the latest Rhaetian, and are synchronous to the single seismite layer from the UK, which similarly predates the T/J boundary, and has been explained by an extraterrestrial bolide impact. Instead, we argue that the multiple episodes of soft-sediment deformation, interbedded by undisturbed strata, were formed from repeated intense earthquake activity restricted to an interval within the latest Rhaetian bracketed by two negative excursions in δ13C and also containing palynological evidence for deforestation and fern proliferation. The fact that these biotic changes coincide with repeated seismic activity has implications for the end-Triassic extinction and the CAMP scenario. We discuss the temporal position of the seismites in regards to other end-Triassic events, and argue that their supraregional distribution in pre-TJ-boundary strata of NW Europe may be linked to intensified earthquake activity during CAMP emplacement, rather than an extraterrestrial impact.

Hyporheic exchange of heat and solute mass in streams is manifested both in form of different exchange mechanisms and their associated distributions of residence times as well as the range of time-scales characterizing the forcing boundary conditions. A recently developed analytical technique separates the spectrum of time-scales and relates the forcing boundary fluctuations of heat and solute mass through a physical model of the hydrological transport to the response of heat and solute mass. This spectral decomposition can be done both for local (point-scale) observations in the hyporhiec zone itself as well as for transport processes on the watershed scale that can be considered 'well-behaved' in terms of knowledge of the forcing (input) quantities. This paper presents closed-form solutions in spectral form for the point-, reach- and watershed-scale and discusses their applicability to selected data of heat and solute concentration. We quantify the reliability and highlight the benefits of the spectral approach to different scenarios and, peculiarly, the importance for linking the periods in the spectral decomposition of the solute response to the distribution of transport times that arise due to the multitude of exchange mechanisms existing in a watershed. In a point-scale example the power spectra of in-stream temperature is related to the power spectrum of the temperature at a specific sediment depth by means of exact solutions of a physically based formulation of the vertical heat transport. It is shown that any frequency (ω) of in-stream temperature fluctuation scales with the effective thermal diffusivity (κe) and the vertical separation distance between the pairs of temperature (É) data as ω ≈ κe/(2É2), which implies a decreasing weight to higher frequencies (shorter periods) with depth. Similarly on the watershed-scale one can link the watershed dispersion to the damping of the concentration fluctuations in selected frequency intervals

Within "a theoretical framework for the interpretation of karst spring signals" (Covington, EGU2012-853-1) process length scales that characterize the travel distances required for damping pulses of physicochemical parameters of spring waters such as electrical conductivity and temperature were derived (Covington et al., J. Geophys. Res., 2012). These length scales can be converted to corresponding process timescales characterizing the travel times needed for damping the pulses. This is particularly convenient if the travel distance is unknown. In this case the time lag between the increase of spring discharge and subsequent physicochemical responses at the spring may provide an estimate of the travel time. In binary karst aquifers with localized recharge from a sinking stream, the recharge pulse can be directly observed and thus travel times are readily obtained from the time delay of the physicochemical spring responses. If the spring response is strongly damped travel times can be inferred from artificial tracer testing. In this work, timescales for carbonate dissolution and heat transport were used for characterizing the binary Lurbach-Tanneben karst aquifer (Austria). This aquifer receives allogenic recharge from the sinking stream Lurbach and is drained by two springs, namely the Hammerbach and the Schmelzbach. The two springs show different thermal responses to two recharge events in December 2008: Whereas the temperature of the Schmelzbach responds within one day after the flood pulse in the Lurbach, the temperature signal is strongly damped at the Hammerbach. The evaluation based on the thermal timescale thus suggests that the Schmelzbach spring is fed by conduits with hydraulic diameters at least in the order of decimetres. In contrast, the damping of the thermal responses at the Hammerbach may be due to lower hydraulic diameters and/or longer residence times. Interestingly, the Hammerbach did show thermal responses in the time before a flood event in

The Permian-Triassic boundary was temporarily associated with formation of the Siberian Traps Large Igneous Province. Major Late Permian and Early Triassic subsidence is documented by seismic reflection data in the East Barents Basin. Further west, basin subsidence and an abrupt change from carbonate and evaporite deposition to clastic sedimentation is recorded by industry seismic and well data in the south and onshore Svalbard in the north. The Permian-Triassic boundary is commonly not preserved either due to non-deposition or erosion, but could be locally preserved in depocenters. A major northwestward prograding clastic delta sourced from the Uralian hinterland reached the Norwegian (western) part of the Barents Sea in the earliest Triassic (Induan). We suggest that the large-scale changes in paleoenviroment, vertical motions, and sedimentary processes in the Barents Sea region were strongly influenced by large-scale changes in mantle dynamics and paleoclimate caused by the Siberian Traps igneous event. By analogy with other Large Igneous Provinces, such as the North Atlantic Volcanic Province, regional uplift and subsidence associated with a rising mantle plume may precede the arrival of the plume at the base of the lithosphere with 10's of millions of years. In contrast, the paleoenvironmental changes and the associated extinction were mainly caused by rapid intrusion of magma into sedimentary basins and voluminous igneous eruptions.

The 12th May 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in the Longmen Shan occurred on a large thrust fault largely inherited from an Indosinian structure itself probably controlled by an older structural heritage of the South China block continental margin. Within the whole northeast Tibet region, such a structural inheritance has had a major impact on the Tertiary deformation. It appears of primary importance to assess the pre-Tertiary tectonic evolution of the main blocks involved to understand the actual deformation in the eastern edge of Tibet. Over the past decades, the Proterozoic to Cenozoic tectonic, metamorphic and geochronologic history of the Longmen Shan and Songpan Garzê area have been largely studied. We present a synthesis of the tectonic evolution of the Songpan Garzê fold and thrust belt from Triassic to present. The Songpan-Garzê belt was formed during closure of a wide oceanic basin filled with a thick (5 to 15 km) sequence of Triassic flyschoid sediments [10]. Closure of the basin due to Triassic subduction involved strong shortening, intense folding and faulting of the Triassic series. A large-scale décollement, that presently outcrops along the eastern boundary of the belt (Danba area), allowed the growth of a wide and thick accretionary wedge [9]. It develops in the Paleozoic and Triassic series and separates the accretionary prism from an autochthonous crystalline basement [5, 12, 6] which shares many similarities with the basement of the Yangtze Craton (0.7-0.9 Ga). To the north and northwest, below the thickened Triassic series of the belt, the composition (oceanic or continental) of the basement remains unknown. During the Indosinian orogeny the emplacement of orogenic granites (220 - 150 Ma) was associated to crustal thickening [12, 13, 17, 15]. The isotopic composition of granitoids shows that their magma source were predominantly derived from melting of the proterozoic basement with varying degrees of sedimentary material and negligible mantle

The presence of gigantic apex predators in the eastern Panthalassic and western Tethyan oceans suggests that complex ecosystems in the sea had become re-established in these regions at least by the early Middle Triassic, after the Permian-Triassic mass extinction (PTME). However, it is not clear whether oceanic ecosystem recovery from the PTME was globally synchronous because of the apparent lack of such predators in the eastern Tethyan/western Panthalassic region prior to the Late Triassic. Here we report a gigantic nothosaur from the lower Middle Triassic of Luoping in southwest China (eastern Tethyan ocean), which possesses the largest known lower jaw among Triassic sauropterygians. Phylogenetic analysis suggests parallel evolution of gigantism in Triassic sauropterygians. Discovery of this gigantic apex predator, together with associated diverse marine reptiles and the complex food web, indicates global recovery of shallow marine ecosystems from PTME by the early Middle Triassic.

The presence of gigantic apex predators in the eastern Panthalassic and western Tethyan oceans suggests that complex ecosystems in the sea had become re-established in these regions at least by the early Middle Triassic, after the Permian-Triassic mass extinction (PTME). However, it is not clear whether oceanic ecosystem recovery from the PTME was globally synchronous because of the apparent lack of such predators in the eastern Tethyan/western Panthalassic region prior to the Late Triassic. Here we report a gigantic nothosaur from the lower Middle Triassic of Luoping in southwest China (eastern Tethyan ocean), which possesses the largest known lower jaw among Triassic sauropterygians. Phylogenetic analysis suggests parallel evolution of gigantism in Triassic sauropterygians. Discovery of this gigantic apex predator, together with associated diverse marine reptiles and the complex food web, indicates global recovery of shallow marine ecosystems from PTME by the early Middle Triassic. PMID:25429609

The presence of gigantic apex predators in the eastern Panthalassic and western Tethyan oceans suggests that complex ecosystems in the sea had become re-established in these regions at least by the early Middle Triassic, after the Permian-Triassic mass extinction (PTME). However, it is not clear whether oceanic ecosystem recovery from the PTME was globally synchronous because of the apparent lack of such predators in the eastern Tethyan/western Panthalassic region prior to the Late Triassic. Here we report a gigantic nothosaur from the lower Middle Triassic of Luoping in southwest China (eastern Tethyan ocean), which possesses the largest known lower jaw among Triassic sauropterygians. Phylogenetic analysis suggests parallel evolution of gigantism in Triassic sauropterygians. Discovery of this gigantic apex predator, together with associated diverse marine reptiles and the complex food web, indicates global recovery of shallow marine ecosystems from PTME by the early Middle Triassic. PMID:25429609

A catastrophic terminal Triassic extinction event among terrestrial vertebrates is not supported by available evidence. The current model for such an extinction is based on at least eight weak or untenable assumptions: (1) a terminal Triassic extinction-inducing asteroid impact occurred, (2) a terminal Triassic synchronous mass extinction of terrestrial vertebrates occurred, (3) a concurrent terminal Triassic marine extinction occurred, (4) all terrestrial vertebrate families have similar diversities and ecologies, (5) changes in familial diversity can be gauged accurately from the known fossil record, (6) extinction of families can be compared through time without normalizing for changes in familial diversity through time, (7) extinction rates can be compared without normalizing for differing lengths of geologic stages, and (8) catastrophic mass extinctions do not select for small size. These assumptions have resulted in unsupportable and (or) erroneous conclusions. Carboniferous through Early Jurassic terrestrial vertebrate families mostly have evolution and extinction patterns unlike the vertebrate evolution and extinction patterns during the terminal Cretaceous event. Only the Serpukhovian (mid Carboniferous) extinction event shows strong analogy to the terminal Cretaceous event. Available data suggest no terminal Triassic extinction anomaly, but rather a prolonged and nearly steady decline in the global terrestrial vertebrate extinction rate throughout the Triassic and earliest Jurassic. ?? 1992.

This article presents a new measure of available time specific to fostering, the Available TimeScale (ATS). It was tested with a national sample of 304 foster mothers and is designed to measure the amount of time foster parents are able to devote to fostering activities. The ATS has excellent reliability, and good support exists for its validity.…

Metabolic rate in animals and power consumption in computers are analogous quantities that scale similarly with size. We analyse vascular systems of mammals and on-chip networks of microprocessors, where natural selection and human engineering, respectively, have produced systems that minimize both energy dissipation and delivery times. Using a simple network model that simultaneously minimizes energy and time, our analysis explains empirically observed trends in the scaling of metabolic rate in mammals and power consumption and performance in microprocessors across several orders of magnitude in size. Just as the evolutionary transitions from unicellular to multicellular animals in biology are associated with shifts in metabolic scaling, our model suggests that the scaling of power and performance will change as computer designs transition to decentralized multi-core and distributed cyber-physical systems. More generally, a single energy-time minimization principle may govern the design of many complex systems that process energy, materials and information.This article is part of the themed issue 'The major synthetic evolutionary transitions'. PMID:27431524

Computer models of mantle convection constrained by the history of Cenozoic and Mesozoic plate motions explain some deep-mantle structural heterogeneity imaged by seismic tomography, especially those related to subduction. They also reveal a 150-million-year timescale for generating thermal heterogeneity in the mantle, comparable to the record of plate motion reconstructions, so that the problem of unknown initial conditions can be overcome. The pattern of lowermost mantle structure at the core-mantle boundary is controlled by subduction history, although seismic tomography reveals intense large-scale hot (low-velocity) upwelling features not explicitly predicted by the models. PMID:9525864

We propose a wavelet based method for the characterization of the scaling behavior of nonstationary time series. It makes use of the built-in ability of the wavelets for capturing the trends in a data set, in variable window sizes. Discrete wavelets from the Daubechies family are used to illustrate the efficacy of this procedure. After studying binomial multifractal time series with the present and earlier approaches of detrending for comparison, we analyze the time series of averaged spin density in the 2D Ising model at the critical temperature, along with several experimental data sets possessing multifractal behavior.

We propose a wavelet based method for the characterization of the scaling behavior of nonstationary time series. It makes use of the built-in ability of the wavelets for capturing the trends in a data set, in variable window sizes. Discrete wavelets from the Daubechies family are used to illustrate the efficacy of this procedure. After studying binomial multifractal time series with the present and earlier approaches of detrending for comparison, we analyze the time series of averaged spin density in the 2D Ising model at the critical temperature, along with several experimental data sets possessing multifractal behavior. PMID:16383481

This dissertation presents experimental studies on Brownian motion at fast timescales, as well as our recent developments in Thermal Noise Imaging which uses thermal motions of microscopic particles for spatial imaging. As thermal motions become increasingly important in the studies of soft condensed matters, the study of Brownian motion is not only of fundamental scientific interest but also has practical applications. Optical tweezers with a fast position-sensitive detector provide high spatial and temporal resolution to study Brownian motion at fast timescales. A novel high bandwidth detector was developed with a temporal resolution of 30 ns and a spatial resolution of 1 A. With this high bandwidth detector, Brownian motion of a single particle confined in an optical trap was observed at the timescale of the ballistic regime. The hydrodynamic memory effect was fully studied with polystyrene particles of different sizes. We found that the mean square displacements of different sized polystyrene particles collapse into one master curve which is determined by the characteristic timescale of the fluid inertia effect. The particle's inertia effect was shown for particles of the same size but different densities. For the first time the velocity autocorrelation function for a single particle was shown. We found excellent agreement between our experiments and the hydrodynamic theories that take into account the fluid inertia effect. Brownian motion of a colloidal particle can be used to probe three-dimensional nano structures. This so-called thermal noise imaging (TNI) has been very successful in imaging polymer networks with a resolution of 10 nm. However, TNI is not efficient at micrometer scale scanning since a great portion of image acquisition time is wasted on large vacant volume within polymer networks. Therefore, we invented a method to improve the efficiency of large scale scanning by combining traditional point-to-point scanning to explore large vacant

The late Permian to late Triassic sediments of the Solway Basin consist of an originally flat-lying, laterally persistent and consistent succession of mature, dominantly fine-grained red clastics laid down in part of a very large intracontinental basin. The complete absence of body or trace fossils or palaeosols indicates a very arid (hyperarid) depositional environment for most of the sediments. At the base of the succession, thin regolith breccias and sandstones rest unconformably on basement and early Permian rift clastics. Overlying gypsiferous red silty mudstones, very fine sandstones and thick gypsum were deposited in either a playa lake or in a hypersaline estuary, and their margins. These pass upwards into thick-bedded, multi-storied, fine- to very fine-grained red quartzo-felspathic and sublithic arenites in which even medium sand is rare despite channels with clay pebbles up to 30 cm in diameter. Above, thick trough cross-bedded and parallel laminated fine-grained aeolian sandstones (deposited in extensive barchanoid dune complexes) pass up into very thick, multicoloured mudstones, and gypsum deposited in marginal marine or lacustrine sabkha environments. The latter pass up into marine Lower Jurassic shales and limestones. Thirteen non-marine clastic lithofacies are arranged into five main lithofacies associations whose facies architecture is reconstructed where possible by analysis of large exposures. The five associations can be compared with the desert pavement, arid ephemeral stream, sabkha, saline lake and aeolian sand dune environments of the arid to hyperarid areas of existing intracontinental basins such as Lake Eyre and Lake Chad. The accommodation space in such basins is controlled by gradual tectonic subsidence moderated by large fluctuations in shallow lake extent (caused by climatic change and local variation) and this promotes a large-scale layer-cake stratigraphy as exemplified in the Solway basin. Here, the dominant fine-grained mature

The deposition of surface charge in barrier discharges is a process that influences the ongoing discharge significantly. This contribution presents the measurement of absolute surface charge densities and their dynamics in a laterally extended setup. An electro-optic BSO crystal is used as dielectric. The absolute charge density on its surface is deduced from the change of polarisation of light passing the crystal. Using different temporal resolutions, the behavior of charge is investigated on three different timescales. The highest temporal resolution of the technique is in the order of hundreds of nanoseconds. Therefore it is possible for the first time to observe the charge deposition process during an active discharge. On the timescale of the applied voltage period (several microseconds), the conservation mechanisms of a lateral discharge pattern is investigated. For this, the influence of surface charge and metastable species in the volume is estimated. Further, the behavior of the surface charge spots on a variation of the external voltage and gas pressure is studied. Measurements on a timescale in the magnitude of seconds reveal charge decay and transport phenomena. This work was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.

Force microscopy techniques including optical trapping, magnetic tweezers, and atomic force microscopy (AFM) have facilitated quantification of forces and distances on the molecular scale. However, sensitivity and stability limitations have prevented the application of these techniques to biophysical systems that generate large forces over long times, such as actin filament networks. Growth of actin networks drives cellular shape change and generates nano-Newtons of force over timescales of minutes to hours, and consequently network growth properties have been difficult to study. Here, we present an AFM-based differential force microscope with integrated epifluorescence imaging in which two adjacent cantilevers on the same rigid support are used to provide increased measurement stability. We demonstrate 14 nm displacement control over measurement times of 3 hours and apply the instrument to quantify actin network growth in vitro under controlled loads. By measuring both network length and total network fluorescence simultaneously, we show that the average cross-sectional density of the growing network remains constant under static loads. The differential force microscope presented here provides a sensitive method for quantifying force and displacement with long time-scale stability that is useful for measurements of slow biophysical processes in whole cells or in reconstituted molecular systems in vitro. PMID:17477674

Solar irradiance is the main external source of energy to Earth's climate system. The record of direct measurements covering less than 40 years is too short to study solar influence on Earth's climate, which calls for reconstructions of solar irradiance into the past with the help of appropriate models. An obvious requirement to a competitive model is its ability to reproduce observed irradiance changes, and a successful example of such a model is presented by the SATIRE family of models. As most state-of-the-art models, SATIRE assumes that irradiance changes on timescales longer than approximately a day are caused by the evolving distribution of dark and bright magnetic features on the solar surface. The surface coverage by such features as a function of time is derived from solar observations. The choice of these depends on the timescale in question. Most accurate is the version of the model that employs full-disc spatially-resolved solar magnetograms and reproduces over 90% of the measured irradiance variation, including the overall decreasing trend in the total solar irradiance over the last four cycles. Since such magnetograms are only available for about four decades, reconstructions on timescales of centuries have to rely on disc-integrated proxies of solar magnetic activity, such as sunspot areas and numbers. Employing a surface flux transport model and sunspot observations as input, we have being able to produce synthetic magnetograms since 1700. This improves the temporal resolution of the irradiance reconstructions on centennial timescales. The most critical aspect of such reconstructions remains the uncertainty in the magnitude of the secular change.

In the present structural concept, the Kocaeli Peninsula, as a part of the Istanbul Zone, was in Triassictimes part of an Eurasian fragment on the northern edge of the northernmost Tethys branch. The Triassic sequence, exposed in the Kocaeli Peninsula (NW Turkey), represents well dated transgressive and regressive marine deposits. This "Kocaeli Triassic", being regarded as an important Triassic sequence has attracted the attention of a large number of scientists. The Kocaeli Triassic encompasses six formations: The red coloured Scythian Kapaklı Formation is barren and shows regressive features, resembling the underlying Permian facies; The Erikli Formation is the first marine deposition of Scythian age. The Late Scythian Demirciler Formation consists of micritic and dolomitic limestone. The unit shows bioturbation in the clayey limestone-limestone sequence. Covering a karstic surface, the Anisian Ballıkaya Formation consists of dolomite, dolomitic limestone and limestone, follow by the Tepeköy Formation that shows 4 different lithologies. At base, Anisian grey nodular and red nodular limestones equals the nodular limestones of the Kazmalı Formation laterally; The Late Anisian-Ladinian Ammonitico Rosso facies. The upper part consists of Carnian shale with Halobia and grey-green marls. Restricted to the Çerkeşli region, the Çerkeşli Formation consists of a pebbly limestones, as a lateral equivalent of the Tepeköy Formation. The Anisian platform conodonts include new taxa that are described. We also focus on several new ramiforms, adding to the multi-elemental and taxonomic diversities. The revised Anisian conodont biostratigraphy is presented. Key Words: Triassic, Anisian, Conodont, Kocaeli

The Triassic Songpan-Ganzi complex comprises >200,000 km2 of 5-15 km thick turbiditic sediments. Although surrounded by several magmatic and orogenic belts, the Triassic high- and ultrahigh-pressure Qinling-Tongbai-Hong'an-Dabie (QTHD) orogen, located several hundred kilometers to the east, was proposed as its major source. Middle to Late Triassic samples from the northern and southern Songpan-Ganzi complex, studied using detrital white mica 40Ar/39Ar ages, Si-in-white mica content, and detrital zircon U/Pb ages, suggest that the northern Songpan-Ganzi deposystem obtained detritus from the north: the north China block, east Kunlun, northern Qaidam, Qilian, and western Qinling; the southern Songpan-Ganzi deposystem was supplied from the northeasterly located Paleozoic QTHD area throughout the Ladinian and received detritus from the Triassic Hong'an-Dabie orogen during the Carnian, indicative of exhumation of the orogen at that time. The QTHD orogen fed the Norian samples in the southeastern southern Songpan-Ganzi deposystem, signifying long drainage channels along the western margin of the south China block. An additional supply from the Emeishan magmatic province and/or the Yidun arc is suggested by the paucity of white mica in the southern Songpan-Ganzi deposystem. Mica ages of Rhaetian sediments from the northwestern Sichuan basin best correlate with those of the Triassic QTHD orogen. Our Si-in-white mica data demonstrate that the high- and ultrahigh-pressure rocks of the Hong'an-Dabie Shan were not exposed in the Middle to Late Triassic. Copyright 2007 by the American Geophysical Union.

A stochastic approach to time-dependent density functional theory is developed for computing the absorption cross section and the random phase approximation (RPA) correlation energy. The core idea of the approach involves time-propagation of a small set of stochastic orbitals which are first projected on the occupied space and then propagated in time according to the time-dependent Kohn-Sham equations. The evolving electron density is exactly represented when the number of random orbitals is infinite, but even a small number (≈16) of such orbitals is enough to obtain meaningful results for absorption spectrum and the RPA correlation energy per electron. We implement the approach for silicon nanocrystals using real-space grids and find that the overall scaling of the algorithm is sublinear with computational time and memory.

The use of the thermal lens method is shown to be quite suitable for kinetic studies of quenching on a submicrosecond timescale. The lower limit of time resolution that can be achieved is determined by the acoustic transit time, /tau//sub /ital a//, in the medium. A thermal lens signal with a 100-ns time constant due to the quenched triplet state of benzophenone is readily measured. The thermal lens method is superior to the photoacoustic (PA) method in the breadth of the accessible time range, and in the significantly fewer measurements required to obtain accurate data, including no requirement for a reference sample; it is also less sensitive to geometrical and laser power requirements than is the PA method.

Diffusion is the driver of critical biological processes in cellular and molecular biology. The diverse temporal scales of cellular function are determined by vastly diverse spatial scales in most biophysical processes. The latter are due, among others, to small binding sites inside or on the cell membrane or to narrow passages between large cellular compartments. The great disparity in scales is at the root of the difficulty in quantifying cell function from molecular dynamics and from simulations. The coarse-grained timescale of cellular function is determined from molecular diffusion by the mean first passage time of molecular Brownian motion to a small targets or through narrow passages. The narrow escape theory (NET) concerns this issue. The NET is ubiquitous in molecular and cellular biology and is manifested, among others, in chemical reactions, in the calculation of the effective diffusion coefficient of receptors diffusing on a neuronal cell membrane strewn with obstacles, in the quantification of the early steps of viral trafficking, in the regulation of diffusion between the mother and daughter cells during cell division, and many other cases. Brownian trajectories can represent the motion of a molecule, a protein, an ion in solution, a receptor in a cell or on its membrane, and many other biochemical processes. The small target can represent a binding site or an ionic channel, a hidden active site embedded in a complex protein structure, a receptor for a neurotransmitter on the membrane of a neuron, and so on. The mean time to attach to a receptor or activator determines diffusion fluxes that are key regulators of cell function. This review describes physical models of various subcellular microdomains, in which the NET coarse-grains the molecular scale to a higher cellular-level, thus clarifying the role of cell geometry in determining subcellular function.

Exploring spatial and temporal scales provides a way to understand human alteration of landscape processes and human responses to these processes. We address three topics relevant to human-landscape systems: (1) scales of human impacts on geomorphic processes, (2) spatial and temporal scales in river restoration, and (3) timescales of natural disasters and behavioral and institutional responses. Studies showing dramatic recent change in sediment yields from uplands to the ocean via rivers illustrate the increasingly vast spatial extent and quick rate of human landscape change in the last two millennia, but especially in the second half of the twentieth century. Recent river restoration efforts are typically small in spatial and temporal scale compared to the historical human changes to ecosystem processes, but the cumulative effectiveness of multiple small restoration projects in achieving large ecosystem goals has yet to be demonstrated. The mismatch between infrequent natural disasters and individual risk perception, media coverage, and institutional response to natural disasters results in un-preparedness and unsustainable land use and building practices. PMID:23716006

Heteronuclear couplings are a valuable source of molecular information, which is measured from the multiplet splittings of an NMR spectrum. Radiofrequency irradiation on one coupled nuclear spin allows to modify the effective coupling constant, scaling down the multiplet splittings in the spectrum observed at the resonance frequency of the other nuclear spin. Such decoupling sequences are often used to collapse a multiplet into a singlet and can therefore simplify NMR spectra significantly. Continuous-wave (cw) decoupling has an intrinsic non-linear offset dependence of the scaling of the effective J-coupling constant. Using optimal control pulse optimization, we show that virtually arbitrary off-resonance scaling of the J-coupling constant can be achieved. The new class of tailored decoupling pulses is named SHOT (Scaling of Heteronuclear couplings by Optimal Tracking). Complementing cw irradiation, SHOT pulses offer an alternative approach of encoding chemical shift information indirectly through off-resonance decoupling, which however makes it possible for the first time to achieve linear J scaling as a function of offset frequency. For a simple mixture of eight aromatic compounds, it is demonstrated experimentally that a 1D-SHOT {1H}-13C experiment yields comparable information to a 2D-HSQC and can give full assignment of all coupled spins.

The Siberian trap basalts erupted during a short period of ~1 Myr at the Permo-Triassic boundary. It provides a unique opportunity to study absolute paleointensity during this one of the best-dated periods of Paleozoic era. Previous studies suggest relatively low paleointensity values (Heunemann et al. 2004), result that leads the authors to propose that the Mesozoic Dipole Low could be extended at least to the Permo-Triassic boundary. In this contribution we present new paleointensity results for sills and dykes from the eastern (areas of the kimberlite pipes Sytikanskaya, Yubileinaya and Aikhal) and north-western (intrusions near Norilsk city) parts of the Siberian platform. A total of 341 samples were subject to a modified Thellier-Thellier technique. In order to assure the reliability of the paleointensity estimates partial thermoremanent magnetization checks and multidomain tail check were applied. North-western (Norilsk) samples did not meet reliability criteria and have been rejected from the paleointensity analysis although paleomagnetic analysis demonstrated matching to the expected Permo-Triassic direction of the Siberian traps. Our paleointensity estimates from the eastern trap occurrences show a virtual dipolar moment (VDM) close to the present geomagnetic field value, 5.71±0.92×1022Am2, 5.89±0.37×1022Am2 and 6.21±0.78×1022Am2 for the three study areas, respectively. Our values are about two times higher than reported in Heunemann et al. (2004). There could be a variety of reasons for the discrepancy between our results and previous studies: (1) Magnetostratigraphy studies on the Siberian trap basalts (Gurevitch et al. 2004) have shown that several reversal processes occurred during the time of their formation. As shown by Valet et al. (2005), a period of time is required for the geomagnetic field to recover after a reversal occurrence. During such period it is still possible to have a stable normal or reverse direction and low paleointensity

Modern sensor networks often collect data at multiple timescales in order to observe physical phenomena that occur at different scales. Whether collected by heterogeneous or homogenous sensor networks, measurements at different timescales are usually subject to different dynamics, noise characteristics, and error sources. We explore the impact of these effects on the results of statistical time series analysis methods applied to multi-scaletime series data. As a case study, we analyze results from GPS time series position data collected in Japan and the Western United States, which produce raw observations at 1Hz and orbit corrected observations at time resolutions of 5 minutes, 30 minutes, and 24 hours. We utilize the GPS analysis package (GAP) software to perform three types of statistical analysis on these observations: hidden Markov modeling, probabilistic principle components analysis, and covariance distance analysis. We compare the results of these methods at the different timescales and discuss the impact on science understanding of earthquake fault systems generally and recent large seismic events specifically, including the Tohoku-Oki earthquake in Japan and El Mayor-Cucupah earthquake in Mexico.

Marine and non-marine facies of the Permian-Triassic boundary stratigraphic set (PTBST) are well developed in South China. Palynological assemblages enable subdivision and correlation of the Permian-Triassic boundary (PTB) rocks. Three palynological assemblages are recognized across the PTBST in two terrestrial PTB sections in western Guizhou and eastern Yunnan, South China. Assemblage 1 (Xuanwei Formation) is a Late Permian palynological assemblage dominated by ferns and pteridosperms, with minor gymnosperms. Most taxa are typical long-ranging Paleozoic forms, but the appearance of Lueckisporites confirms a Late Permian age for this assemblage. Assemblage 2 (PTBST) is marked by an abrupt decrease in palynomorph abundance and diversity, and thriving fungal/algal(?) spores. Assemblage 2 is still dominated by ferns and pteridosperms, with a few gymnosperms, but is characterized by a mixed palynoflora containing both Late Permian and Early Triassic elements. Most taxa are typical Late Permian ones also found in Assemblage 1, however, some taxa of Early Triassic aspect, e.g. Lundbladispora and Taeniaesporites, appeared for the first time. In Assemblage 3 (top Xuanwei Formation and Kayitou Formation), the proportion of gymnosperm pollen increases rapidly, exceeding that of ferns and pteridosperms, but the abundance of palynomorphs is still low. Typical Early Triassic taxa (such as Lundbladispora, Aratrisporites and Taeniaesporites) are present in greater abundance and confirms an Early Triassic age for this assemblage.

The experiment investigated the effect of selectively augmenting faster timescales of visual feedback information on the learning and transfer of continuous isometric force tracking tasks to test the generality of the self-organization of 1/f properties of force output. Three experimental groups tracked an irregular target pattern either under a standard fixed gain condition or with selectively enhancement in the visual feedback display of intermediate (4-8 Hz) or high (8-12 Hz) frequency components of the force output. All groups reduced tracking error over practice, with the error lowest in the intermediate scaling condition followed by the high scaling and fixed gain conditions, respectively. Selective visual scaling induced persistent changes across the frequency spectrum, with the strongest effect in the intermediate scaling condition and positive transfer to novel feedback displays. The findings reveal an interdependence of the timescales in the learning and transfer of isometric force output frequency structures consistent with 1/f process models of the timescales of motor output variability. PMID:26041272

Using a general model for the equilibrium dynamics of supercooled liquids, I compute from molecular properties the emergent length and timescales that govern the nonequilibrium relaxation behavior of amorphous ice prepared by rapid cooling. Upon cooling, the liquid water falls out of equilibrium whereby the temperature dependence of its relaxation time is predicted to change from super-Arrhenius to Arrhenius. A consequence of this crossover is that the location of the apparent glass transition temperature depends logarithmically on cooling rate. Accompanying vitrification is the emergence of a dynamical length-scale, the size of which depends on the cooling rate and varies between angstroms and tens of nanometers. While this protocol dependence clarifies a number of previous experimental observations for amorphous ice, the arguments are general and can be extended to other glass forming liquids.

Energy flows in biomolecular motors and machines are vital to their function. Yet experimental observations are often limited to a small subset of variables that participate in energy transport and dissipation. Here we show, through a solvable Langevin model, that the seemingly hidden entropy production is measurable through the violation spectrum of the fluctuation-response relation of a slow observable. For general Markov systems with timescale separation, we prove that the violation spectrum exhibits a characteristic plateau in the intermediate frequency region. Despite its vanishing height, the plateau can account for energy dissipation over a broad timescale. Our findings suggest a general possibility to probe hidden entropy production in nanosystems without direct observation of fast variables.

Energy flows in biomolecular motors and machines are vital to their function. Yet experimental observations are often limited to a small subset of variables that participate in energy transport and dissipation. Here we show, through a solvable Langevin model, that the seemingly hidden entropy production is measurable through the violation spectrum of the fluctuation-response relation of a slow observable. For general Markov systems with timescale separation, we prove that the violation spectrum exhibits a characteristic plateau in the intermediate frequency region. Despite its vanishing height, the plateau can account for energy dissipation over a broad timescale. Our findings suggest a general possibility to probe hidden entropy production in nanosystems without direct observation of fast variables. PMID:27563943

The light curve data from 1894 to 2008 are compiled for the BL Lacertae object OJ 287 from the available literature. Periodicity analysis methods (the Discrete Correlation Function-DCF, the Jurkevich method, the power spectral (Fourier) analysis, and the CLEANest method) are performed to search for possible periodicites in the light curve of OJ 287. Significance levels are given for the possible periods. The analysis results confirm the existence of the 12.2±0.6 yr timescale and show a hint of a ~53 yr timescale. The 12.2±0.6 yr period is used as the orbital period to investigate the supermassive binary black hole system parameters.

Thermally driven diffusive motion of a particle underlies many physical and biological processes. In the presence of traps and obstacles, the spread of the particle is substantially impeded, leading to subdiffusive scaling at long times. The statistical mechanical treatment of diffusion in a disordered environment is often quite involved. In this short review, we present a simple and unified view of the many quantitative results on anomalous diffusion in the literature, including the scaling of the diffusion front and the mean first-passage time. Various analytic calculations and physical arguments are examined to highlight the role of dimensionality, energy landscape, and rare events in affecting the particle trajectory statistics. The general understanding that emerges will aid the interpretation of relevant experimental and simulation results.

The variations of the total solar irradiance is an important tool for studying the Sun, thanks to the development of very precise sensors such as the ACRIM instrument on board the Solar Maximum Mission. The largest variations of the total irradiance occur on timescales of a few days are caused by solar active regions, especially sunspots. Efforts were made to describe the active region effects on total and spectral irradiance.

The Haar transform is generalized to the case of an arbitrary time and scale splitting. To any binary tree we associate an orthogonal system of Haar-type functions - tree-structured Haar (TSH) functions. Unified fast algorithm for computation of the introduced tree-structured Haar transforms is presented. It requires 2(N - 1) additions and 3N - 2 multiplications, where N is transform order or, equivalently, the number of leaves of the binary tree.

Changes in bioavailability of phosphorus (P) during pedogenesis and ecosystem development have been shown for geogenic calcium phosphate (Ca-P). However, very little is known about long-term changes of biogenic Ca-P in soil. Long-term transformation characteristics of biogenic Ca-P were examined using anthropogenic soils along a chronosequence from centennial to millennial timescales. Phosphorus fractionation of Anthrosols resulted in overall consistency with the Walker and Syers model of geogenic Ca-P transformation during pedogenesis. The biogenic Ca-P (e.g., animal and fish bones) disappeared to 3% of total P within the first ca. 2,000 years of soil development. This change concurred with increases in P adsorbed on metal-oxides surfaces, organic P, and occluded P at different pedogenic time. Phosphorus K-edge X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy revealed that the crystalline and therefore thermodynamically most stable biogenic Ca-P was transformed into more soluble forms of Ca-P over time. While crystalline hydroxyapatite (34% of total P) dominated Ca-P species after about 600-1,000 years, {Beta}-tricalcium phosphate increased to 16% of total P after 900-1,100 years, after which both Ca-P species disappeared. Iron-associated P was observable concurrently with Ca-P disappearance. Soluble P and organic P determined by XANES maintained relatively constant (58-65%) across the timescale studied. Conclusions - Disappearance of crystalline biogenic Ca-P on a timescale of a few thousand years appears to be ten times faster than that of geogenic Ca-P.

We present a coevolutionary view of hydrologic systems, revolving around feedbacks between environmental and social processes operating across different timescales. This brings to the fore an emphasis on emergent phenomena in changing water systems, such as the levee effect, adaptation to change, system lock-in, and system collapse due to resource depletion. Changing human values play a key role in the emergence of these phenomena and should therefore be considered as internal to the system. Guidance is provided for the framing and modeling of these phenomena to test alternative hypotheses about how they arose. A plurality of coevolutionary models, from stylized to comprehensive system-of-system models, may assist strategic water management for long timescales through facilitating stakeholder participation, exploring the possibility space of alternative futures, and helping to synthesize the observed dynamics in a wide range of case studies. Future research opportunities lie in exploring emergent phenomena arising from timescale interactions through historical, comparative, and process studies of human-water feedbacks.

Backpropagation is the most widely used neural network learning technique. It is based on the mathematical notion of an ordered derivative. In this paper, we present a formulation of ordered derivatives and the backpropagation training algorithm using the important emerging area of mathematics known as the timescales calculus. This calculus, with its potential for application to a wide variety of inter-disciplinary problems, is becoming a key area of mathematics. It is capable of unifying continuous and discrete analysis within one coherent theoretical framework. Using this calculus, we present here a generalization of backpropagation which is appropriate for cases beyond the specifically continuous or discrete. We develop a new multivariate chain rule of this calculus, define ordered derivatives on timescales, prove a key theorem about them, and derive the backpropagation weight update equations for a feedforward multilayer neural network architecture. By drawing together the timescales calculus and the area of neural network learning, we present the first connection of two major fields of research. PMID:20615808

Using the cross-correlation of the wavelet transformation, we propose a general method of studying the scale dependence of the direction of coupling for coupled time series. The method is first demonstrated by applying it to coupled van der Pol forced oscillators and coupled nonlinear stochastic equations. We then apply the method to the analysis of the log-return time series of the stock values of the IBM and General Electric (GE) companies. Our analysis indicates that, on average, IBM stocks react earlier to possible common sector price movements than those of GE.

This work considered the quantitative analysis of large written texts. To this end, the text was converted into a time series by taking the sequence of word lengths. The detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) was used for characterizing long-range serial correlations of the time series. To this end, the DFA was implemented within a rolling window framework for estimating the variations of correlations, quantified in terms of the scaling exponent, strength along the text. Also, a filtering derivative was used to compute the dependence of the scaling exponent relative to the scale. The analysis was applied to three famous English-written literary narrations; namely, Alice in Wonderland (by Lewis Carrol), Dracula (by Bram Stoker) and Sense and Sensibility (by Jane Austen). The results showed that high correlations appear for scales of about 50-200 words, suggesting that at these scales the text contains the stronger coherence. The scaling exponent was not constant along the text, showing important variations with apparent cyclical behavior. An interesting coincidence between the scaling exponent variations and changes in narrative units (e.g., chapters) was found. This suggests that the scaling exponent obtained from the DFA is able to detect changes in narration structure as expressed by the usage of words of different lengths.

of the biota therefore took a relatively long time. The environmental events at the Permian-Triassic boundary might not be significantly different from those at other Phanerozoic transitions, but they consisted of a series of events that occurred at intervals during the transitional period.

We present an ab initio approach to solving the time-dependent Schroedinger equation to treat electron- and photon-impact multiple ionization of atoms or molecules. It combines the already known time-scaled coordinate method with a high-order time propagator based on a predictor-corrector scheme. In order to exploit in an optimal way the main advantage of the time-scaled coordinate method, namely, that the scaled wave packet stays confined and evolves smoothly toward a stationary state, of which the squared modulus is directly proportional to the electron energy spectra in each ionization channel, we show that the scaled bound states should be subtracted from the total scaled wave packet. In addition, our detailed investigations suggest that multiresolution techniques like, for instance, wavelets are the most appropriate ones to represent the scaled wave packet spatially. The approach is illustrated in the case of the interaction of a one-dimensional model atom as well as atomic hydrogen with a strong oscillating field.

A variety of paleoclimatic records have been used to study scaling properties of past climate, including ice core paleotemperature records and multi-proxy reconstructions. Records extending further back in time than the Holocene are divided into glacial/interglacial segments before analysis. The methods used to infer the scaling include the power spectral density (Lomb-Scargle periodogram and standard periodogram), detrended fluctuation analysis, wavelet variance analysis and the Haar fluctuation function. All the methods have individual strengths, weaknesses, uncertainties and biases, and for this reason it is useful to compare results from different methods when possible. Proxy-based reconstructions have limited spatial and temporal coverage, and must be used and interpreted with great care due to uncertainties. By elaborating on physical mechanisms for the actual climate fluctuations seen in the paleoclimatic temperature records as well as uncertainties in both data and methods, we demonstrate the possible pitfalls that may lead to the conclusion that the variability in temperature time series can be separated into different scaling regimes. Categorizing the Earth's surface temperature variability into a «macroweather» and "climate" regime has little or no practical meaning since the different components in the climate system are connected and interact on all timescales. Our most important result is that a break between two different scaling regimes at timescales around one century cannot be identified in Holocene climate. We do, however, observe departures from scaling, which can be attributed to variability such as a single internal quasi-periodic oscillation, an externally forced trend, or a combination of factors. If two scaling regimes are claimed to be present in one single time series, both regimes must be persistent. We show that the limited temporal resolution/length of the records significantly lowers the confidence for such persistence. A total of

Without exception, the oils from both the Abruzzi basin and Albanian foredeep are of lower Liassic to Upper Triassic origin. This is demonstrated by biological marker-based correlations between the oils and stratigraphically controlled, carbonate-rich source rocks. The biomarker studies also provided proof to conclude that many of the oils possess low API gravities and high sulfur contents because they are immature rather than biodegraded. Following the geochemical investigations, a computer-aided, basinwise maturation simulation of the hydrocarbon kitchens was carried out, with backstripping in geologic time. The simulations, performed with the Tissot-Espitalie kinetic model, used basin-specific kerogen activation energies obtained by the optimum method. These simulated values were calibrated with observed values in deep wells. Two characteristics diverge from normal petroleum basin situations (e.g., the North Sea basin): sulfur-rich kerogens in the source rocks, featuring relatively low activation energy distributions, and low geothermal gradients in the subsurface. The geographic outlines of simulated Triassic-lower Liassic hydrocarbon kitchens closely coincide with the zones of petroleum occurrence and production in the Adriatic basin. Furthermore, API gravities of the oils are broadly predicted by the mathematical simulations. This methodology has once again shown its ability to rationally high-grade the petroleum-rich sectors of sedimentary basin while identifying those areas where chances of success are extremely low regardless of the presence of structures.

The continental Triassic rocks of Texas are represented by four distinct but similar rock groups that exist both in outcrop and in the subsurface and include the Eagle Mills Formation (south-central and northeast Texas), Sycamore Formation (central Texas), Dockum Group (west Texas), and Bissett Formation (southwest Texas). They are clearly terrigenous in nature derived principally from older Paleozoic sedimentary rocks. The rock groups are composed in part or entirely of mudstone, siltstone, medium to coarse-grained sandstone, and pebble to boulder conglomerate (intrabasinal and extrabasinal). The sediments were deposited in alluvial fans, braided and meandering streams, lobate deltas, fan deltas, and lakes. The coarse sandstone and conglomerate are the products of high-energy, short-duration depositional events. Sedimentation was greatly affected by alternating climatic conditions that produced changes in base level, water depth, and lake area as well as the type of streams that flowed into the depositional basins. The character of the rock groups strongly suggests semi-arid to arid deposition typical of the low latitude desert regions of today. Thus, the rocks comprising the Eagle Mills, Sycamore, Dockum, and Bissett Formations appear to be products of continental clastic deposition during a major semi-arid to arid climatic episode, such as that of late Triassictime.

Two major fault systems influenced Jurassic structure and deposition on the Conecuh Ridge, southwest Alabama. Identification and dating of these fault systems are based on seismic-stratigraphic interpretation of a 7-township grid in Monroe and Conecuh Counties. Relative time of faulting is determined by fault geometry and by formation isopachs and isochrons. Smackover and Norphlet Formations, both Late Jurassic in age, are mappable seismic reflectors and are thus reliable for seismicstratigraphic dating. The earlier of the 2 fault systems is a series of horsts and grabens that trends northeast-southwest and is Late Triassic to Early Jurassic in age. The system formed in response to tensional stress associated with the opening of the Atlantic Ocean. The resulting topography was a series of northeast-southwest-trending ridges. Upper Triassic Eagle Mills and Jurassic Werner Formations were deposited in the grabens. The later fault system is also a series of horsts and grabens trending perpendicular to the first. This system was caused by tensional stress related to a pulse in the opening of the Gulf of Mexico. Faulting began in Early Jurassic and continued into Late Jurassic, becoming progressively younger basinward. At the basin margin, faulting produced a very irregular shoreline. Submerged horst blocks became centers for shoaling or carbonate buildups. Today, these blocks are exploration targets in southwest Alabama.

The Lower Triassic (Smithian) Thaynes Formation represents a broad spectrum of paleoenvironments. Samples arranged along a generalized depth-salinity environmental gradient from tidal flats to a relatively deep, commonly dysaerobic, basin yielded a conodont fauna of 30 form elements. Association and similarity analysis were used to group the conodont elements into eight conodont entities, reflecting both biologic association (multielement apparatuses) and ecologic association (biofacies). Simple chi-square tests and discriminant analyses, using the eight conodont entities, and indicate presence of three distinctive conodont biofacies related to the generalized environmental gradient. The restricted inner shelf biotope was characterized by a conodont fauna dominated by Parachirognathus. The outer shelf biotope was distinguished by a diverse conodont fauna including the distinctive form Furnishius. The biotope farthest offshore consists of a low diversity conodont fauna composed primarily of species of Neogondolella. Some early Triassic conodonts such as Neospathodus and Ellisonia triassica are ubiquitous, and provide the foundation for a inter-basinal conodont zonation. Early Triassic conodont biotopes can be arranged along a generalized environmental gradient that probably reflects changes in hydrographic factors (e.g., salinity, temperature, and energy) which affected the distribution of conodonts.

Traditional approaches to cognitive modelling generally portray cognitive events in terms of 'discrete' states (point attractor dynamics) rather than in terms of processes, thereby neglecting the time structure of cognition. In contrast, more recent approaches explicitly address this temporal dimension, but typically provide no entry points into cognitive categorization of events and experiences. With the aim to incorporate both these aspects, we propose a framework for functional architectures. Our approach is grounded in the notion that arbitrary complex (human) behaviour is decomposable into functional modes (elementary units), which we conceptualize as low-dimensional dynamical objects (structured flows on manifolds). The ensemble of modes at an agent's disposal constitutes his/her functional repertoire. The modes may be subjected to additional dynamics (termed operational signals), in particular, instantaneous inputs, and a mechanism that sequentially selects a mode so that it temporarily dominates the functional dynamics. The inputs and selection mechanisms act on faster and slower timescales then that inherent to the modes, respectively. The dynamics across the three timescales are coupled via feedback, rendering the entire architecture autonomous. We illustrate the functional architecture in the context of serial behaviour, namely cursive handwriting. Subsequently, we investigate the possibility of recovering the contributions of functional modes and operational signals from the output, which appears to be possible only when examining the output phase flow (i.e., not from trajectories in phase space or time). PMID:21980278

It is assumed that an annual tree-ring growth is adequately determined by a linear function of local or regional precipitation and temperature with a set of coefficients that are temporally invariant. But often that relations are non-linear. The process-based tree-ring VS-model can be used to resolve the critical processes linking climate variables to tree-ring formation. This work describes a new block of VS-model which allows to estimate a cell production in tree rings and transfer it into timescale based on the simulated integral growth rates of the model. In the algorithm of time identification for cell production we used a integral growth rates simulated by the VS-model for each growing season. The obtained detailed approach with a calculation of the time of each cell formation improves significantly the date accuracy of new cell formation in growing season. As a result for each cell in the tree-ring we estimate the temporal moment of the cell production corresponded to the seasonal growth rate in the same timescale. The approach was applied and tested for the cell measurements obtained for Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) for the period 1964-2013 in Malaya Minusa river (Khakassia, South Siberia). The work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (RSF # 14-14-00219)

Flow excursion transients give rise to a key thermal limit for the proposed Advanced Neutron Source (ANS) reactor because its core involves many parallel flow channels with a common pressure drop. Since one can envision certain accident scenarios in which the thermal limits set by flow excursion correlations might be exceeded for brief intervals, a key objective is to determine how long a flow excursion would take to bring about a system failure that could lead to fuel damage. The anticipated timescale for flow excursions has been examined by subdividing the process into its component phenomena: bubble nucleation and growth, deceleration of the resulting two-phase flow, and finally overcoming thermal inertia to heat up the reactor fuel plates. Models were developed to estimate the time required for each individual stage. Accident scenarios involving sudden reduction in core flow or core exit pressure have been examined, and the models compared with RELAP5 output for the ANS geometry. For a high-performance reactor like the ANS, flow excursion timescales were predicted to be in the millisecond range, so that even very brief transients might lead to fuel damage. These results should prove useful whenever one must determine the time involved in any portion of a flow excursion transient.

Traditional approaches to cognitive modelling generally portray cognitive events in terms of ‘discrete’ states (point attractor dynamics) rather than in terms of processes, thereby neglecting the time structure of cognition. In contrast, more recent approaches explicitly address this temporal dimension, but typically provide no entry points into cognitive categorization of events and experiences. With the aim to incorporate both these aspects, we propose a framework for functional architectures. Our approach is grounded in the notion that arbitrary complex (human) behaviour is decomposable into functional modes (elementary units), which we conceptualize as low-dimensional dynamical objects (structured flows on manifolds). The ensemble of modes at an agent’s disposal constitutes his/her functional repertoire. The modes may be subjected to additional dynamics (termed operational signals), in particular, instantaneous inputs, and a mechanism that sequentially selects a mode so that it temporarily dominates the functional dynamics. The inputs and selection mechanisms act on faster and slower timescales then that inherent to the modes, respectively. The dynamics across the three timescales are coupled via feedback, rendering the entire architecture autonomous. We illustrate the functional architecture in the context of serial behaviour, namely cursive handwriting. Subsequently, we investigate the possibility of recovering the contributions of functional modes and operational signals from the output, which appears to be possible only when examining the output phase flow (i.e., not from trajectories in phase space or time). PMID:21980278

The bilaterally symmetrical gastropod Bellerophon asiaticus Wirth is redescribed from specimens collected in Guizhou Province, PRC. The species is reassigned to Retispira, a common late Paleozoic taxon. Retispira is another example of a Paleozoic gastropod genus that crossed the era boundary. Associated pelecypods that date these Guizhou occurrences as Early Triassic are well known species in PRC and are illustrated. Both Bellerophon and Euphemites probably occur in the Early Triassic, though the quality of illustrations leaves some uncertainty; the existence of Stachella in the Triassic is more problematic. There was no dramatic reduction of the Bellerophontacea from their abundance and diversity in the Permian. It may be a general phenomenon that most late Paleozoic family-level and many generic-level taxa of gastropods were unaffected by the late Permian 'crisis'. from Authors

On decadal to multi-decadal timescales, thermal expansion of sea waters and land ice loss are the main contributors to sea level variations. However, modification of the terrestrial water cycle due to climate variability and direct anthropogenic forcing may also affect sea level. For the past decades, variations in land water storage and corresponding effects on sea level cannot be directly estimated from observations because these are almost non-existent at global continental scale. However, global hydrological models developed for atmospheric and climatic studies can be used for estimating total water storage. For the recent years (since mid-2002), terrestrial water storage change can be directly estimated from observations of the GRACE space gravimetry mission. In this study, we analyse the interannual variability of total land water storage, and investigate its contribution to mean sea level variability at interannual timescale. We consider three different periods that, each, depend on data availability: (1) GRACE era (2003-2009), (2) 1993-2003 and (3) 1955-1995. For the GRACE era (period 1), change in land water storage is estimated using different GRACE products over the 33 largest river basins worldwide. For periods 2 and 3, we use outputs from the ISBA-TRIP (Interactions between Soil, Biosphere, and Atmosphere-Total Runoff Integrating Pathways) global hydrological model. For each time span, we compare change in land water storage (expressed in sea level equivalent) to observed mean sea level, either from satellite altimetry (periods 1 and 2) or tide gauge records (period 3). For each data set and each time span, a trend has been removed as we focus on the interannual variability. We show that whatever the period considered, interannual variability of the mean sea level is essentially explained by interannual fluctuations in land water storage, with the largest contributions arising from tropical river basins.

Much of the interest in hydrological modeling in the past decades revolved around resolving spatial variability. With the rapid changes brought about by human impacts on the hydrologic cycle, there is now an increasing need to refocus on time dependency. We present a co-evolutionary view of hydrologic systems, in which every part of the system including human systems, co-evolve, albeit at different rates. The resulting coupled human-nature system is framed as a dynamical system, characterized by interactions of fast and slow timescales and feedbacks between environmental and social processes. This gives rise to emergent phenomena such as the levee effect, adaptation to change and system collapse due to resource depletion. Changing human values play a key role in the emergence of these phenomena and should therefore be considered as internal to the system in a dynamic way. The co-evolutionary approach differs from the traditional view of water resource systems analysis as it allows for path dependence, multiple equilibria, lock-in situations and emergent phenomena. The approach may assist strategic water management for long timescales through facilitating stakeholder participation, exploring the possibility space of alternative futures, and helping to synthesise the observed dynamics of different case studies. Future research opportunities include the study of how changes in human values are connected to human-water interactions, historical analyses of trajectories of system co-evolution in individual places and comparative analyses of contrasting human-water systems in different climate and socio-economic settings. Reference Sivapalan, M. and G. Blöschl (2015) Timescale interactions and the coevolution of humans and water. Water Resour. Res., 51, 6988-7022, doi:10.1002/2015WR017896.

Of the recent sauropsid skin appendage types, only feathers develop from a cylindrical epidermal invagination, the follicle, and show hierarchical branching. Fossilized integuments of Mesozoic diapsids have been interpreted as follicular and potential feather homologues, an idea particularly controversially discussed for the elongate dorsal skin projections of the small diapsid Longisquama insignis from the Triassic of Kyrgyzstan. Based on new finds and their comparison with the type material, we show that Longisquama’s appendages consist of a single-branched internal frame enclosed by a flexible outer membrane. Not supporting a categorization either as feathers or as scales, our analysis demonstrates that the Longisquama appendages formed in a two-stage, feather-like developmental process, representing an unusual early example for the evolutionary plasticity of sauropsid integument.

Recently a new optimal control modification has been introduced that can achieve robust adaptation with a large adaptive gain without incurring high-frequency oscillations as with the standard model-reference adaptive control. This modification is based on an optimal control formulation to minimize the L2 norm of the tracking error. The optimal control modification adaptive law results in a stable adaptation in the presence of a large adaptive gain. This study examines the optimal control modification adaptive law in the context of a system with a timescale separation resulting from a fast plant with a slow actuator. A singular perturbation analysis is performed to derive a modification to the adaptive law by transforming the original system into a reduced-order system in slow time. A model matching conditions in the transformed time coordinate results in an increase in the actuator command that effectively compensate for the slow actuator dynamics. Simulations demonstrate effectiveness of the method.

A Late Permian to Early Triassic magnetostratigraphic reference section is presented. The Lower Triassic part is based on results from marine limestone sections in South China published earlier [1,2]. Reliable new Permian data are added here which have been collected in the Nammal gorge (Salt Range, Northwest Pakistan) where marine sediments have been deposited quasi-continuously with occasional minor hiatuses during the late Palaeozoic to early Mesozoic. About 50% of the Permian samples from the Nammal section contain, hidden beneath a strong recent or Tertiary overprint, a characteristic remanent magnetization (ChRM) which is very likely of Permian age. This component, which was imprinted on the southern hemisphere, has normal as well as reversed polarity with a normal mean direction (Decl. = 289.3°, Incl. = -50.3°, α 95 = 4.3° , N = 113) which is in close agreement with the palaeofield direction expected for a site belonging to the Indian plate as part of Gondwanaland during the Permian. In the lower Upper Permian several normal polarity zones are recognized. This contradicts the current assumption that rocks of this age belong to the long, reversely polarized Kiaman hyperzone. The Kiaman interval must end and the Illawarra hyperzone of mixed polarity must begin in or prior to the lowermost Upper Permian. The Permian/Triassic boundary at Nammal as well as in the Chinese sections is situated very close to a transition from a reversed to a normal polarity zone. The Upper Permian at Nammal together with the Lower Triassic South China sections is estimated to cover about 20 Ma. Nearly 30 polarity changes are observed which result in an average reversal frequency very similar to that observed during the early Tertiary. The reversal rate after the end of the long-lasting reversed Kiaman hyperchron apparently increases in a manner similar to that after the end of the Cretaceous Long Normal Superchron. Only a few polarity zones are found in the lower Upper Permian

The interevent time distribution characterizes the temporal occurrence in seismic catalogs. Universal scaling properties of this distribution have been evidenced for entire catalogs and seismic sequences. Recently, these universal features have been questioned and some criticisms have been raised. We investigate the existence of universal scaling properties by analyzing a Californian catalog and by means of numerical simulations of an epidemic-type model. We show that the interevent time distribution exhibits a universal behavior over the entire temporal range if four characteristic times are taken into account. The above analysis allows us to identify the scaling form leading to universal behavior and explains the observed deviations. Furthermore, it provides a tool to identify the dependence on the mainshock magnitude of the c parameter that fixes the onset of the power law decay in the Omori law.

A valuable attribute of astrochronology is the direct link between chronometer and climate change, providing a remarkable opportunity to constrain the evolution of the surficial Earth System. Consequently, the hunt for astronomical cycles in strata has spurred the development of a rich conceptual framework for climatic/oceanographic change, and has allowed exploration of the geologic record with unprecedented temporal resolution. Accompanying these successes, however, has been a persistent skepticism about appropriate astrochronologic testing and circular reasoning: how does one reliably test for astronomical cycles in stratigraphic data, especially when time is poorly constrained? From this perspective, it would seem that the merits and promise of astrochronology (e.g., a geologic timescale measured in ≤400 kyr increments) also serves as its Achilles heel, if the confirmation of such short rhythms defies rigorous statistical testing. To address these statistical challenges in astrochronologic testing, a new approach has been developed that (1) explicitly evaluates timescale uncertainty, (2) is resilient to common problems associated with spectrum confidence level assessment and 'multiple testing', and (3) achieves high statistical power under a wide range of conditions (it can identify astronomical cycles when present in data). Designated TimeOpt (for "timescale optimization"; Meyers 2015), the method employs a probabilistic linear regression model framework to investigate amplitude modulation and frequency ratios (bundling) in stratigraphic data, while simultaneously determining the optimal timescale. This presentation will review the TimeOpt method, and demonstrate how the flexible statistical framework can be further extended to evaluate (and optimize upon) complex sedimentation rate models, enhancing the statistical power of the approach, and addressing the challenge of unsteady sedimentation. Meyers, S. R. (2015), The evaluation of eccentricity

Quartz inclusions in garnet from samples collected from the staurolite zone in central New England are zoned in cathodoluminescence (CL). The CL intensity is interpreted to be a proxy for Ti concentration and the zoning attributed to Ti diffusion into the quartz grains driven by Ti exchange between quartz and enclosing garnet as a function of changing temperature. The CL zoning has been interpreted using a numerical diffusion model to constrain the timescales over which the diffusion has occurred. Temperature-time histories are sensitive to the presumed peak temperature but not to other model parameters. The total time of the metamorphic heating and cooling cycle from around 450 °C to the peak temperature (550-600 °C) back to 450 °C is surprisingly short and encompasses only 0.2-2 million years for peak temperatures of 600-550 °C. The metamorphism was accompanied by large-scale nappe and dome formation, and it is suggested that this occurred as a consequence of in-sequence thrusting resulting in a mid-crustal ductile duplex structure.

Intra-cellular fluctuations, mainly triggered by gene expression, are an inevitable phenomenon observed in living cells. It influences generation of phenotypic diversity in genetically identical cells. Such variation of cellular components is beneficial in some contexts but detrimental in others. To quantify the fluctuations in a gene product, we undertake an analytical scheme for studying few naturally abundant linear as well as branched chain network motifs. We solve the Langevin equations associated with each motif under the purview of linear noise approximation and derive the expressions for Fano factor and mutual information in close analytical form. Both quantifiable expressions exclusively depend on the relaxation time (decay rate constant) and steady state population of the network components. We investigate the effect of relaxation time constraints on Fano factor and mutual information to indentify a timescale domain where a network can recognize the fluctuations associated with the input signal more reliably. We also show how input population affects both quantities. We extend our calculation to long chain linear motif and show that with increasing chain length, the Fano factor value increases but the mutual information processing capability decreases. In this type of motif, the intermediate components act as a noise filter that tune up input fluctuations and maintain optimum fluctuations in the output. For branched chain motifs, both quantities vary within a large scale due to their network architecture and facilitate survival of living system in diverse environmental conditions. PMID:25955500

Intra-cellular fluctuations, mainly triggered by gene expression, are an inevitable phenomenon observed in living cells. It influences generation of phenotypic diversity in genetically identical cells. Such variation of cellular components is beneficial in some contexts but detrimental in others. To quantify the fluctuations in a gene product, we undertake an analytical scheme for studying few naturally abundant linear as well as branched chain network motifs. We solve the Langevin equations associated with each motif under the purview of linear noise approximation and derive the expressions for Fano factor and mutual information in close analytical form. Both quantifiable expressions exclusively depend on the relaxation time (decay rate constant) and steady state population of the network components. We investigate the effect of relaxation time constraints on Fano factor and mutual information to indentify a timescale domain where a network can recognize the fluctuations associated with the input signal more reliably. We also show how input population affects both quantities. We extend our calculation to long chain linear motif and show that with increasing chain length, the Fano factor value increases but the mutual information processing capability decreases. In this type of motif, the intermediate components act as a noise filter that tune up input fluctuations and maintain optimum fluctuations in the output. For branched chain motifs, both quantities vary within a large scale due to their network architecture and facilitate survival of living system in diverse environmental conditions. PMID:25955500

Through the past 17 years, the timescale requirements at the National Research Council (NRC) have been met by the unsteered output of its primary laboratory cesium clocks, supplemented by hydrogen masers when short-term stability better than 2 x 10(exp -12)tau(sup -1/2) has been required. NRC now operates three primary laboratory cesium clocks, three hydrogen masers, and two commercial cesium clocks. NRC has been using ensemble averages for internal purposes for the past several years, and has a realtime algorithm operating on the outputs of its high-resolution (2 x 10(exp -13) s at 1 s) phase comparators. The slow frequency drift of the hydrogen masers has presented difficulties in incorporating their short-term stability into the ensemble average, while retaining the long-term stability of the laboratory cesium frequency standards. We report on this work on algorithms for an inhomogeneous ensemble of atomic clocks, and on our initial work on timescale algorithms that could incorporate frequency calibrations at NRC from the next generation of Zacharias fountain cesium frequency standards having frequency accuracies that might surpass 10(exp -15), or from single-trapped-ion frequency standards (Ba+, Sr+,...) with even higher potential accuracies. The requirements for redundancy in all the elements (including the algorithms) of an inhomogeneous ensemble that would give a robust real-time output of the algorithms are presented and discussed.

The end-Triassic extinction is characterized by major losses in both terrestrial and marine diversity, setting the stage for dinosaurs to dominate Earth for the next 136 million years. Despite the approximate coincidence between this extinction and flood basalt volcanism, existing geochronologic dates have insufficient resolution to confirm eruptive rates required to induce major climate perturbations. Here, we present new zircon uranium-lead (U-Pb) geochronologic constraints on the age and duration of flood basalt volcanism within the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province. This chronology demonstrates synchroneity between the earliest volcanism and extinction, tests and corroborates the existing astrochronologic timescale, and shows that the release of magma and associated atmospheric flux occurred in four pulses over about 600,000 years, indicating expansive volcanism even as the biologic recovery was under way. PMID:23519213

Towards 1967, the accuracy of caesium frequency standards reached such a level that the relativistic effect could not be ignored anymore. Corrections began to be applied for the gravitational frequency shift and for distant time comparisons. However, these corrections were not applied to an explicit theoretical framework. Only in 1991 did the International Astronomical Union provide metrics (then improved in 2000) for a definition of space-time coordinates in reference systems centred at the barycentre of the Solar System and at the centre of mass of the Earth. In these systems, the temporal coordinates (coordinate times) can be realized on the basis of one of them, the International Atomic Time (TAI), which is itself a realized timescale. The definition and the role of TAI in this context will be recalled. There remain controversies regarding the name to be given to the unit of coordinate times and to other quantities appearing in the theory. However, the idea that astrometry and celestial mechanics should adopt the usual metrological rules is progressing, together with the use of the International System of Units, among astronomers. PMID:21930569

In this paper, we consider a generalization to the asexual version of Penna model for biological aging, where we take a continuous time limit. The genotype associated to each individual is an interval of real numbers over which Dirac δ-functions are defined, representing genetically programmed diseases to be switched on at defined ages of the individual life. We discuss two different continuous limits for the evolution equation and two different mutation protocols, to be implemented during reproduction. Exact stationary solutions are obtained and scaling properties are discussed.

We develop and implement a new type of global earthquake forecast. Our forecast is a perturbation on a smoothed seismicity (Relative Intensity) spatial forecast combined with a temporal time-averaged ("Poisson") forecast. A variety of statistical and fault-system models have been discussed for use in computing forecast probabilities. An example is the Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities, which has been using fault-based models to compute conditional probabilities in California since 1988. An example of a forecast is the Epidemic-Type Aftershock Sequence (ETAS), which is based on the Gutenberg-Richter (GR) magnitude-frequency law, the Omori aftershock law, and Poisson statistics. The method discussed in this talk is based on the observation that GR statistics characterize seismicity for all space and time. Small magnitude event counts (quake counts) are used as "markers" for the approach of large events. More specifically, if the GR b-value = 1, then for every 1000 M>3 earthquakes, one expects 1 M>6 earthquake. So if ~1000 M>3 events have occurred in a spatial region since the last M>6 earthquake, another M>6 earthquake should be expected soon. In physics, event count models have been called natural time models, since counts of small events represent a physical or natural timescale characterizing the system dynamics. In a previous research, we used conditional Weibull statistics to convert event counts into a temporal probability for a given fixed region. In the present paper, we move belyond a fixed region, and develop a method to compute these Natural Time Weibull (NTW) forecasts on a global scale, using an internally consistent method, in regions of arbitrary shape and size. We develop and implement these methods on a modern web-service computing platform, which can be found at www.openhazards.com and www.quakesim.org. We also discuss constraints on the User Interface (UI) that follow from practical considerations of site usability.

The alignment of noisy and uniformly scaledtime series is an important but difficult task. Given two time series, one of which is a uniformly stretched subsequence of the other, we want to determine the stretching factor and the offset of the second time series within the first one. We adapted and enhanced different methods to address this problem: classical FFT-based approaches to determine the offset combined with a naïve search for the stretching factor or its direct computation in the frequency domain, bounded dynamic time warping and a new approach called shotgun analysis, which is inspired by sequencing and reassembling of genomes in bioinformatics. We thoroughly examined the strengths and weaknesses of the different methods on synthetic and real data sets. The FFT-based approaches are very accurate on high quality data, the shotgun approach is especially suitable for data with outliers. Dynamic time warping is a candidate for non-linear stretching or compression. We successfully applied the presented methods to identify steel coils via their thickness profiles.

Irregular length of day (LOD) fluctuations on timescales of less than a few years are largely produced by atmospheric torques on the underlying planet. Significant coherence is found between the respective time series of LOD and atmospheric angular momentum (AAM) determinations at periods down to 8 days, with lack of coherence at shorter periods caused by the declining signal-to-measurement noise ratios of both data types. Refinements to the currently accepted model of tidal earth rotation variations are required, incorporating in particular the nonequilibrium effect of the oceans. The remaining discrepancies between LOD and AAM in the 100- to 10-day period range may be due to either a common error in the AAM data sets from different meteorological centers, or another component of the angular momentum budget.

We often view our knowledge of hydrology and hence of nature as intransient, at least over the timescales over which we study processes we wish to predict and understand. Over the last few decades, this assumption has come under question, largely because of the vocal expression of a changing climate, but also the recurrent demonstration of significant land use change, both of which significantly affect the boundary conditions for terrestrial hydrology that is our forte. Most recently, the concepts of hydromorphology and social hydrology have entered the discussion, and the notion that climate and hydrology influence human action, which in turn shapes hydrology, is being recognized. Finally, as a field, we seem to be coming to the conclusion that the hydrologic system is an open system, whose boundaries evolve in time, and that the hydrologic system, at many scales, has a profound effect on the systems that drive it -- whether they be the ecological and climatic systems, or the social system. What a mess! Complexity! Unpredictability! At a certain level of abstraction, one can consider the evolution of these coupled systems with nonlinear feedbacks and ask what types of questions are relevant in terms of such a coupled evolution? What are their implications at the planetary scale? What are their implications for a subsistence farmer in an arid landscape who may under external influence achieve a new transient hydro-ecological equilibrium? What are the implications for the economy and power of nations? In this talk, I will try to raise some of these questions and also provide some examples with very simple dynamical systems that suggest ways of thinking about some practical issues of feedback across climate, hydrology and human behavior.

A reusable launch vehicle control problem during ascent is addressed via multiple-timescaled continuous sliding mode control. The proposed sliding mode controller utilizes a two-loop structure and provides robust, de-coupled tracking of both orientation angle command profiles and angular rate command profiles in the presence of bounded external disturbances and plant uncertainties. Sliding mode control causes the angular rate and orientation angle tracking error dynamics to be constrained to linear, de-coupled, homogeneous, and vector valued differential equations with desired eigenvalues placement. Overall stability of a two-loop control system is addressed. An optimal control allocation algorithm is designed that allocates torque commands into end-effector deflection commands, which are executed by the actuators. The dual-timescale sliding mode controller was designed for the X-33 technology demonstration sub-orbital launch vehicle in the launch mode. Simulation results show that the designed controller provides robust, accurate, de-coupled tracking of the orientation angle command profiles in presence of external disturbances and vehicle inertia uncertainties. This is a significant advancement in performance over that achieved with linear, gain scheduled control systems currently being used for launch vehicles.

Information on Earth Radiation Balance is needed at climatic timescales for enabling assessment of variability and trends in the forcing functions of the climate system. Satellite observations have been instrumental for advancing the understanding of such balance at global scale; yet, the length of available records does not meet climatic needs. Major issues hindering such efforts are related to the frequent changes in satellite observing systems, including the specification of the satellite instruments, and changes in the quality of atmospheric inputs that drive the inference schemes. In this paper we report on an effort to synthesize estimates of shortwave, longwave and spectral surface radiative fluxes by fusing observations from numerous satellite platforms that include MODIS observations. This information was obtained in the framework of the MEaSURES and NEWS programs; it will be evaluated against ground observations and compared to independent satellite and model estimates. Attention will be given to updates on our knowledge on the radiative balance as compared to what is known from shorter time records.

The idea that complex motor, perceptual, and cognitive behaviors are composed of smaller units, which are somehow brought into a meaningful relation, permeates the biological and life sciences. However, no principled framework defining the constituent elementary processes has been developed to this date. Consequently, functional configurations (or architectures) relating elementary processes and external influences are mostly piecemeal formulations suitable to particular instances only. Here, we develop a general dynamical framework for distinct functional architectures characterized by the time-scale separation of their constituents and evaluate their efficiency. Thereto, we build on the (phase) flow of a system, which prescribes the temporal evolution of its state variables. The phase flow topology allows for the unambiguous classification of qualitatively distinct processes, which we consider to represent the functional units or modes within the dynamical architecture. Using the example of a composite movement we illustrate how different architectures can be characterized by their degree of timescale separation between the internal elements of the architecture (i.e. the functional modes) and external interventions. We reveal a tradeoff of the interactions between internal and external influences, which offers a theoretical justification for the efficient composition of complex processes out of non-trivial elementary processes or functional modes. PMID:21347363

Igneous rocks of Late Triassic age are widespread in the Cordillera of western North America and, except in Wrangellia, consist of subduction-related plutonic and volcanic suites. Many of these, including those in the Stikinia, Quesnellia, Rattlesnake Creek, and Jackson terrenes and in southern California, are clinopyroxene rich and belong to high-potassium and shoshonitic rock series, features that are generally absent from older and younger igneous rocks in the same terranes. The Late Triassic subduction-related rocks are exposed in two discontinuous belts that lie east and west of the Cache Creek terrane in Canada and correlative melange terranes farther south. Stratigraphic and structural data suggest that these belts were spatially separate magmatic arcs in Late Triassictime. Tectonic implications of this analysis include an explanation of Middle Jurassic Cordilleran deformation as the result of collision of the western with the eastern belt, absence of Late Triassic links between Stikinia and Quesnellia, disassociation of Stikinia with terranes in northwestern Nevada, and tentative correlation of the Wallowa (Seven Devils) terrane with Stikinia rather than Wrangellia. *Present address: New Zealand Geological Survey, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Private Bag, Dunedin, New Zealand

Many workers have drawn attention to the displaced eugeoclinal rocks in the northern Mojave Desert and El Paso Mountains and their importance in models for the development of an active continental margin in the western Cordillera. Existing models can generally for either strike-slip juxtaposition or thrust emplacement. New field data, U-Pb zircon geochronology, and isotopic data for metasedimentary rocks and plutons in the northern Mojave Desert and El Paso Mountains shed light on the timing and mechanism of emplacement of the eugeoclinal allocthon. The observations and data above indicate that Early Triassic plutons in the northern Mojave Desert came through oceanic lithosphere but later Jurassic plutons intercepted continental lithosphere. The authors suggest a model where eugeoclinal rocks were deposited on oceanic crust which was initially brought southward along a strike-slip fault and later thrust eastward over the cratonal assemblage. Permian thrusting is incompatible with their data and observations. Intrusion of lower Triassic strata by Early Triassic plutons in the Lane Mountain area permits some Early Triassic thrusting but the oceanic affinity of the plutons implies that thrusting did not involve continental lithosphere.

The biotic recovery from Earth’s most severe extinction event at the Permian-Triassic boundary largely reestablished the preextinction structure of marine trophic networks, with marine reptiles assuming the predator roles. However, the highest trophic level of today's marine ecosystems, i.e., macropredatory tetrapods that forage on prey of similar size to their own, was thus far lacking in the Paleozoic and early Mesozoic. Here we report a top-tier tetrapod predator, a very large (>8.6 m) ichthyosaur from the early Middle Triassic (244 Ma), of Nevada. This ichthyosaur had a massive skull and large labiolingually flattened teeth with two cutting edges indicative of a macropredatory feeding style. Its presence documents the rapid evolution of modern marine ecosystems in the Triassic where the same level of complexity as observed in today’s marine ecosystems is reached within 8 My after the Permian-Triassic mass extinction and within 4 My of the time reptiles first invaded the sea. This find also indicates that the biotic recovery in the marine realm may have occurred faster compared with terrestrial ecosystems, where the first apex predators may not have evolved before the Carnian. PMID:23297200

The Triassic Period was an interval of major biotic and environmental changes sandwiched between two major mass extinctions. During the Late Triassic (235-201.3 Ma), dinosaurs originated and diversified across Pangaea, and several major extant vertebrate groups also appeared for the first time. Unfortunately, few detailed stratigraphically-precise local-regional paleontological records exist for continental Triassic strata, which hinders any attempt to understand the tempo and mode of biotic change through the Late Triassic. We present a new stratigraphically well-constrained fossil vertebrate and palynomorph record (10-15 Ma in duration) from the upper Chinle Formation of the Chama Basin, northern New Mexico, an area that is famous for preserving one of the best records of early dinosaurs in North America. Our data indicate that vertebrate faunas were generally stable, experiencing only one identifiable species turnover event. Dinosaurs, although relatively diverse, were never abundant components of the fauna. Contemporaneous palynological records indicate that floral composition fluctuated considerably. The drought-tolerant conifer pollen Enzonalasporites and other gymnosperms such as Alisporites and Protodiploxypinus dominate most palynofloral assemblages, but there is a distinct increase in fern spore abundance near the top of the section. In combination with evidence of variability from organic carbon stable isotopes, these data indicate that the vertebrate fauna, including early dinosaurs, remained stable over millions of years despite living within a dynamic ecosystem associated with rapidly changing environmental conditions.

The Middle and Upper Triassic marine deposits of Guizhou Province, which yielded exceptionally well-preserved vertebrate faunas, are further investigated. New age-diagnostic conodonts and ammonoids from six measured sections, together with already published data, allow us to construct an integrated biochronology straddling strata from the upper Guanling Formation (Anisian, Middle Triassic) to the basal Xiaowa Formation (Carnian, Upper Triassic). Age constrains for those fossil Lagerstätten are now dated to the substage and zone levels: the Panxian Fauna, within the conodont Nicoraella kockeli Zone and broadly coexisted with the ammonoid 'Schreyerites' binodosus, is suggested as latest Pelsonian (middle Anisian) in age; the Xingyi Fauna is assumed to be not younger than the middle Longobardian (Late Ladinian) because the conodont Paragondolella inclinata with free-blade and the ammonoid Haoceras xingyiensis are recorded from slightly younger strata; the conodont Paragondolella auriformis and the ammonoid Trachyceras multituberculatum and Austrotrachyceras triadicum clearly indicate that the Guanling Fauna is not older than Julian (early Carnian) in age (time interval between Aon Zone or Aonoides Zone). With the new biostratigraphic data, a relative sequence and correlation of the Middle Triassic vertebrate faunas from Guizhou (South China) and Monte San Giorgio (Southern Alps, Switzerland/Italy) is proposed.

The eruption of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP)—the largest igneous province known—has been linked to the end-Triassic mass extinction event, however reconciling the response of the biosphere (at local and nonlocal scales) to potential CAMP-induced geochemical excursions has remained challenging. Here we present a combined sedimentary and biological response to an ecosystem collapse in Triassic-Jurassic strata of the southwest United Kingdom (SW UK) expressed as widely distributed carbonate microbialites and associated biogeochemical facies. The microbialites (1) occur at the same stratigraphic level as the mass extinction extinction, (2) host a negative isotope excursion in δ13Corg found in other successions around the world, and (3) co-occur with an acme of prasinophyte algae ‘disaster taxa’ also dominant in Triassic-Jurassic boundary strata of other European sections. Although the duration of microbialite deposition is uncertain, it is likely that they formed rapidly (perhaps fewer than ten thousand years), thus providing a high-resolution glimpse into the initial carbon isotopic perturbation coincident with the end-Triassic mass extinction. These findings indicate microbialites from the SW UK capture a nonlocal biosedimentary response to the cascading effects of massive volcanism and add to the current understanding of paleoecology in the aftermath of the end-Triassic extinction. PMID:26813244

The eruption of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP)-the largest igneous province known-has been linked to the end-Triassic mass extinction event, however reconciling the response of the biosphere (at local and nonlocal scales) to potential CAMP-induced geochemical excursions has remained challenging. Here we present a combined sedimentary and biological response to an ecosystem collapse in Triassic-Jurassic strata of the southwest United Kingdom (SW UK) expressed as widely distributed carbonate microbialites and associated biogeochemical facies. The microbialites (1) occur at the same stratigraphic level as the mass extinction extinction, (2) host a negative isotope excursion in δ(13)Corg found in other successions around the world, and (3) co-occur with an acme of prasinophyte algae 'disaster taxa' also dominant in Triassic-Jurassic boundary strata of other European sections. Although the duration of microbialite deposition is uncertain, it is likely that they formed rapidly (perhaps fewer than ten thousand years), thus providing a high-resolution glimpse into the initial carbon isotopic perturbation coincident with the end-Triassic mass extinction. These findings indicate microbialites from the SW UK capture a nonlocal biosedimentary response to the cascading effects of massive volcanism and add to the current understanding of paleoecology in the aftermath of the end-Triassic extinction. PMID:26813244

The geochemistry of Triassic mudstones in the Himalayan Tethys sequence, central Nepal, was studied with respect to changes in sedimentary facies, grain size, and source rocks. The Triassic sedimentary facies of mudstone and carbonates show deposition in offshore to hemiplegic environments. The rare earth element (REE) pattern of the Permian and Triassic mudstones suggests uniformity correlatable to average shale. The major element geochemistry of the Early Triassic Griesbachian-early Smithian mudstones indicates a sediment supply from strongly weathered sources with the chemical index of alteration (CIA) values of 76-81. However, the mudstones in the late Smithian show weakly weathered sources with CIA values of 68-74. The lower part of the Middle Triassic Anisian mudstones return to Early Triassic paleoweathering levels. There are no significant relationships among lithofacies, the grain size of the sediments, and CIA values. Thus, the abrupt change of the degree of paleoweathering in the Early Triassic, late Smithian time, suggests a dramatic decrease in continental weathering, which is related to a predominantly arid climate in the northern marginal area of Gondwana.

Global precipitation analysis covering the last few decades and the impact of the new TRMM precipitation observations are discussed. The 20+ year, monthly, globally complete precipitation analysis of the World Climate Research Program's (WCRP/GEWEX) Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) is used to explore global and regional variations and trends and is compared to the much shorter TRMM(Tropica1 Rainfall Measuring Mission) tropical data set. A trend pattern that is a combination of both El Nino and La Nina precipitation features is evident in the 20-year data set. This pattern is related to an increase with time in the number of combined months of El Nino and La Nina during the 20 year period. Monthly anomalies of precipitation are related to ENSO variations with clear signals extending into middle and high latitudes of both hemispheres. The GPCP daily, 1deg latitude-longitude analysis, which is available from January 1997 to the present is described and the evolution of precipitation patterns on this timescale related to El Nino and La Nina is described. Finally, a TRMM-based 3-hr analysis is described that uses TRMM to calibrate polar-orbit microwave observations from SSM/I and geosynchronous IR observations and merges the various calibrated observations into a final, 3-hr resolution map. This TRMM standard product will soon be available for the entire TRMM period (January 1998- present). A real-time version of this merged product is being produced and is available at 0.25deg latitude-longitude resolution over the latitude range from 50degN-50degS. Images from this data set can be seen at the U.S. TRMM web site (trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov). Examples will be shown, including its use in monitoring flood conditions and relating weather-scale events to climate variations.

The concept of local accumulation time (LAT) was introduced by Berezhkovskii and co-workers to give a finite measure of the time required for the transient solution of a reaction-diffusion equation to approach the steady-state solution [A. M. Berezhkovskii, C. Sample, and S. Y. Shvartsman, Biophys. J.BIOJAU0006-349510.1016/j.bpj.2010.07.045 99, L59 (2010); A. M. Berezhkovskii, C. Sample, and S. Y. Shvartsman, Phys. Rev. EPLEEE81539-375510.1103/PhysRevE.83.051906 83, 051906 (2011)]. Such a measure is referred to as a critical time. Here, we show that LAT is, in fact, identical to the concept of mean action time (MAT) that was first introduced by McNabb [A. McNabb and G. C. Wake, IMA J. Appl. Math.IJAMDM0272-496010.1093/imamat/47.2.193 47, 193 (1991)]. Although McNabb's initial argument was motivated by considering the mean particle lifetime (MPLT) for a linear death process, he applied the ideas to study diffusion. We extend the work of these authors by deriving expressions for the MAT for a general one-dimensional linear advection-diffusion-reaction problem. Using a combination of continuum and discrete approaches, we show that MAT and MPLT are equivalent for certain uniform-to-uniform transitions; these results provide a practical interpretation for MAT by directly linking the stochastic microscopic processes to a meaningful macroscopic timescale. We find that for more general transitions, the equivalence between MAT and MPLT does not hold. Unlike other critical time definitions, we show that it is possible to evaluate the MAT without solving the underlying partial differential equation (pde). This makes MAT a simple and attractive quantity for practical situations. Finally, our work explores the accuracy of certain approximations derived using MAT, showing that useful approximations for nonlinear kinetic processes can be obtained, again without treating the governing pde directly.

The occurrence of arthropods in amber exclusively from the Cretaceous and Cenozoic is widely regarded to be a result of the production and preservation of large amounts of tree resin beginning ca. 130 million years (Ma) ago. Abundant 230 million-year-old amber from the Late Triassic (Carnian) of northeastern Italy has previously yielded myriad microorganisms, but we report here that it also preserves arthropods some 100 Ma older than the earliest prior records in amber. The Triassic specimens are a nematoceran fly (Diptera) and two disparate species of mites, Triasacarus fedelei gen. et sp. nov., and Ampezzoa triassica gen. et sp. nov. These mites are the oldest definitive fossils of a group, the Eriophyoidea, which includes the gall mites and comprises at least 3,500 Recent species, 97% of which feed on angiosperms and represents one of the most specialized lineages of phytophagous arthropods. Antiquity of the gall mites in much their extant form was unexpected, particularly with the Triassic species already having many of their present-day features (such as only two pairs of legs); further, it establishes conifer feeding as an ancestral trait. Feeding by the fossil mites may have contributed to the formation of the amber droplets, but we find that the abundance of amber during the Carnian (ca. 230 Ma) is globally anomalous for the pre-Cretaceous and may, alternatively, be related to paleoclimate. Further recovery of arthropods in Carnian-aged amber is promising and will have profound implications for understanding the evolution of terrestrial members of the most diverse phylum of organisms. PMID:22927387

The occurrence of arthropods in amber exclusively from the Cretaceous and Cenozoic is widely regarded to be a result of the production and preservation of large amounts of tree resin beginning ca. 130 million years (Ma) ago. Abundant 230 million-year-old amber from the Late Triassic (Carnian) of northeastern Italy has previously yielded myriad microorganisms, but we report here that it also preserves arthropods some 100 Ma older than the earliest prior records in amber. The Triassic specimens are a nematoceran fly (Diptera) and two disparate species of mites, Triasacarus fedelei gen. et sp. nov., and Ampezzoa triassica gen. et sp. nov. These mites are the oldest definitive fossils of a group, the Eriophyoidea, which includes the gall mites and comprises at least 3,500 Recent species, 97% of which feed on angiosperms and represents one of the most specialized lineages of phytophagous arthropods. Antiquity of the gall mites in much their extant form was unexpected, particularly with the Triassic species already having many of their present-day features (such as only two pairs of legs); further, it establishes conifer feeding as an ancestral trait. Feeding by the fossil mites may have contributed to the formation of the amber droplets, but we find that the abundance of amber during the Carnian (ca. 230 Ma) is globally anomalous for the pre-Cretaceous and may, alternatively, be related to paleoclimate. Further recovery of arthropods in Carnian-aged amber is promising and will have profound implications for understanding the evolution of terrestrial members of the most diverse phylum of organisms. PMID:22927387

Species attributes are commonly used to infer impacts of environmental change on multiyear species trends, e.g. decadal changes in population size. However, by themselves attributes are of limited value in global change attribution since they do not measure the changing environment. A broader foundation for attributing species responses to global change may be achieved by complementing an attributes-based approach by one estimating the relationship between repeated measures of organismal and environmental changes over short timescales. To assess the benefit of this multiscale perspective, we investigate the recent impact of multiple environmental changes on European farmland birds, here focusing on climate change and land use change. We analyze more than 800 time series from 18 countries spanning the past two decades. Analysis of long-term population growth rates documents simultaneous responses that can be attributed to both climate change and land-use change, including long-term increases in populations of hot-dwelling species and declines in long-distance migrants and farmland specialists. In contrast, analysis of annual growth rates yield novel insights into the potential mechanisms driving long-term climate induced change. In particular, we find that birds are affected by winter, spring, and summer conditions depending on the distinct breeding phenology that corresponds to their migratory strategy. Birds in general benefit from higher temperatures or higher primary productivity early on or in the peak of the breeding season with the largest effect sizes observed in cooler parts of species' climatic ranges. Our results document the potential of combining timescales and integrating both species attributes and environmental variables for global change attribution. We suggest such an approach will be of general use when high-resolution time series are available in large-scale biodiversity surveys. PMID:26486804

Longisquama insignis was an unusual archosaur from the Late Triassic of central Asia. Along its dorsal axis Longisquama bore a series of paired integumentary appendages that resembled avian feathers in many details, especially in the anatomy of the basal region. The latter is sufficiently similar to the calamus of modern feathers that each probably represents the culmination of virtually identical morphogenetic processes. The exact relationship of Longisquama to birds is uncertain. Nevertheless, we interpret Longisquama's elongate integumentary appendages as nonavian feathers and suggest that they are probably homologous with avian feathers. If so, they antedate the feathers of Archaeopteryx, the first known bird from the Late Jurassic. PMID:10864867

We present three linkage-disequilibrium (LD)-based recombination maps generated using whole-genome sequence data from 10 Nigerian chimpanzees, 13 bonobos, and 15 western gorillas, collected as part of the Great Ape Genome Project (Prado-Martinez J, et al. 2013. Great ape genetic diversity and population history. Nature 499:471-475). We also identified species-specific recombination hotspots in each group using a modified LDhot framework, which greatly improves statistical power to detect hotspots at varying strengths. We show that fewer hotspots are shared among chimpanzee subspecies than within human populations, further narrowing the timescale of complete hotspot turnover. Further, using species-specific PRDM9 sequences to predict potential binding sites (PBS), we show higher predicted PRDM9 binding in recombination hotspots as compared to matched cold spot regions in multiple great ape species, including at least one chimpanzee subspecies. We found that correlations between broad-scale recombination rates decline more rapidly than nucleotide divergence between species. We also compared the skew of recombination rates at centromeres and telomeres between species and show a skew from chromosome means extending as far as 10-15 Mb from chromosome ends. Further, we examined broad-scale recombination rate changes near a translocation in gorillas and found minimal differences as compared to other great ape species perhaps because the coordinates relative to the chromosome ends were unaffected. Finally, on the basis of multiple linear regression analysis, we found that various correlates of recombination rate persist throughout the African great apes including repeats, diversity, and divergence. Our study is the first to analyze within- and between-species genome-wide recombination rate variation in several close relatives. PMID:26671457

Variations in solar UV irradiance at Lyman alpha are studied on short timescales (from days to months) after removing the long-term changes over the solar cycle. The SME/Lyman alpha irradiance is estimated from various solar indices using linear regression analysis. In order to study the nonlinear effects, Lyman alpha irradiance is modeled with a 5th-degree polynomial as well. It is shown that the full-disk equivalent width of the He line at 1083 nm, which is used as a proxy for the plages and active network, can best reproduce the changes observed in Lyman alpha. Approximately 72 percent of the solar-activity-related changes in Lyman alpha irradiance arise from plages and the network. The network contribution is estimated by the correlation analysis to be about 19 percent. It is shown that significant variability remains in Lyman alpha irradiance, with periods around 300, 27, and 13.5d, which is not explained by the solar activity indices. It is shown that the nonlinear effects cannot account for a significant part of the unexplained variation in Lyman alpha irradiance. Therefore, additional events (e.g., large-scale motions and/or a systematic difference in the area and intensity of the plages and network observed in the lines of Ca-K, He 1083, and Lyman alpha) may explain the discrepancies found between the observed and estimated irradiance values.

The Earth constantly deforms as it undergoes dynamic phenomena, such as earthquakes, post-glacial rebound and water displacement in its fluid envelopes. These processes have different spatial and temporal scales and are accompanied by mass displacements, which create temporal variations of the gravity field. Since 2002, the GRACE satellite missions provide an unprecedented view of the gravity field spatial and temporal variations. Gravity models built from these satellite data are essential to study the Earth's dynamic processes (Tapley et al., 2004). Up to present, time variations of the gravity field are often modelled using spatial spherical harmonics functions averaged over a fixed period, as 10 days or 1 month. This approach is well suited for modeling global phenomena. To better estimate gravity related to local and/or transient processes, such as earthquakes or floods, and adapt the temporal resolution of the model to its spatial resolution, we propose to model the gravity field using localized functions in space and time. For that, we build a model of the gravity field in space and time with a four-dimensional wavelet basis, well localized in space and time. First we design the 4D basis, then, we study the inverse problem to model the gravity field from the potential differences between the twin GRACE satellites, and its regularization using prior knowledge on the water cycle. Our demonstration of surface water mass signals decomposition in time and space is based on the use of synthetic along-track gravitational potential data. We test the developed approach on one year of 4D gravity modeling and compare the reconstructed water heights to those of the input hydrological model. Perspectives of this work is to apply the approach on real GRACE data, addressing the challenge of a realistic noise, to better describe and understand physical processus with high temporal resolution/low spatial resolution or the contrary.

A mathematical model is developed for detonation initiation following a time and spatially resolved burst of thermal power from an external source into a spherical target of reactive gas. The objective is to produce a detonation in or near the target with the least possible energy input. Source heating occurs on a sub-microsecond timescale, short compared to the acoustic time of the millimeter-sized target. This leads to a period of near inertial confinement, where the pressure rises with temperature, the density change is very small and local Mach number is extremely subsonic. As a result the thermal enegy change is maximized while the induced kinetic energy is minimized. The large temperature increase within the localized high pressure spot initiates a high activation energy, exothermic reaction which spreads hypersonically from the maximum temperature point. The chemical front is co-located with a large localized pressure gradient, responsible for rapid gas acceleration. A detonation appears at the edge of target, in the form of a strong shock with a coupled reaction zone. The evolutionary process differs fundamentally from that in a DDT and that in a traditional model of direct initiation.

The studies related to electrochromic phenomena performed in the seventies were mainly aimed at the development of information displays. Such applications require small electrode sizes, i.e. with active surface areas of between about 0.01 to 10 cm{sup 2}. The development of large information devices and chiefly smart windows require much larger switching areas. This paper deals with the influence of increasing the active surface area on the response time. The latter depends on both properties of the cell components (transparent conducting layer, electrochromic film, electrolyte and counter electrode) and structure of the cell (size, shape, gap, resistivity of the busbar). Experimental devices were constructed with given components and cell geometry. The effect of a series resistance arisen mainly from the cell size was investigated and explained by the effect of the additional series resistance on the response time of a diffusion-controlled process. The study indicates that the scaling-up of WO{sub 3} devices will be limited by an increase of the response time with increasing active area.

When a liquid droplet impacts a hot solid surface, enough vapor may be generated under it to prevent its contact with the solid. The minimum solid temperature for this so-called Leidenfrost effect to occur is termed the Leidenfrost temperature, or the dynamic Leidenfrost temperature when the droplet velocity is non-negligible. We observe the wetting or drying and the levitation dynamics of the droplet impacting on an (isothermal) smooth sapphire surface using high-speed total internal reflection imaging, which enables us to observe the droplet base up to about 100 nm above the substrate surface. By this method we are able to reveal the processes responsible for the transitional regime between the fully wetting and the fully levitated droplet as the solid temperature increases, thus shedding light on the characteristic time and length scales setting the dynamic Leidenfrost temperature for droplet impact on an isothermal substrate. PMID:26918994

When a liquid droplet impacts a hot solid surface, enough vapor may be generated under it to prevent its contact with the solid. The minimum solid temperature for this so-called Leidenfrost effect to occur is termed the Leidenfrost temperature, or the dynamic Leidenfrost temperature when the droplet velocity is non-negligible. We observe the wetting or drying and the levitation dynamics of the droplet impacting on an (isothermal) smooth sapphire surface using high-speed total internal reflection imaging, which enables us to observe the droplet base up to about 100 nm above the substrate surface. By this method we are able to reveal the processes responsible for the transitional regime between the fully wetting and the fully levitated droplet as the solid temperature increases, thus shedding light on the characteristic time and length scales setting the dynamic Leidenfrost temperature for droplet impact on an isothermal substrate.

The millisecond bursts from Cyg X-1 are investigated and the overall chaotic variability for the bulk of the Cyg X-1 emission is compared to that of Sco X-1, showing that the essential character is remarkably similar (i.e. shot noise) although the fundamental timescales involved differ widely, from a fraction of a second (for Cyg X-1) to a fraction of a day (for Sco X-1). Recent OSO-8 observations of spectra features attributable to iron are reviewed. In particular, line emission is discussed within the context of a model for thermal radiation by a hot evolved gas in systems as different as supernova remnants and clusters of galaxies. Newly observed spectral structure in the emission from the X-ray pulsar Her X-1 is reported.

This paper addresses the problem of controlling a nonlinear plant with a slow actuator using singular perturbation method. For the known plant-actuator cascaded system the proposed scheme achieves tracking of a given reference model with considerably less control demand than would otherwise result when using conventional design techniques. This is the consequence of excluding the small parameter from the actuator dynamics via timescale separation. The resulting tracking error is within the order of this small parameter. For the unknown system the adaptive counterpart is developed based on the prediction model, which is driven towards the reference model by the control design. It is proven that the prediction model tracks the reference model with an error proportional to the small parameter, while the prediction error converges to zero. The resulting closed-loop system with all prediction models and adaptive laws remains stable. The benefits of the approach are demonstrated in simulation studies and compared to conventional control approaches.

We report a new ichthyopterygian assemblage from Lower Triassic horizons of the Prida Formation at Fossil Hill in central Nevada. Although fragmentary, the specimens collected so far document a diverse fauna. One partial jaw exhibits isodont dentition with blunt tipped, mesiodistally compressed crowns and striated enamel. These features are shared with the Early Triassic genus Utatsusaurus known from coeval deposits in Japan and British Columbia. An additional specimen exhibits a different dentition characterized by relatively small, rounded posterior teeth resembling other Early Triassic ichthyopterygians, particularly Grippia. This Nevada assemblage marks a southward latitudinal extension for Early Triassic ichthyopterygians along the eastern margin of Panthalassa and indicates repeated trans-hemispheric dispersal events in Early Triassic ichthyopterygians. PMID:26855868

Abundant occurrences of the palynomorph Reduviasporonites have been described as "fungal spike" from several Permian/Triassic boundary sections and related to the supposed destruction of woody vegetation by fungal pathogens during the Permian/Triassic extinction event. The biological affinity of this taxa considered by some authors of fungal origin is still controversially discussed since there is geochemical evidence that it is most probably related to algae. The abundance peak of this species is used by some authors as a stratigraphic marker, notably in terrestrial Permian/Triassic boundary sections from South China. Illustrations of the reported fungal remains however show potentially erroneous taxonomic identification of Reduviasporonites, and, based on differences in thermal maturation, they may represent recent contamination. Here Reduviasporonites chalastus of Early Triassic age is illustrated together with recent fungal remains originating from a strongly weathered and otherwise barren sample from a Middle Triassic section.

We report a new ichthyopterygian assemblage from Lower Triassic horizons of the Prida Formation at Fossil Hill in central Nevada. Although fragmentary, the specimens collected so far document a diverse fauna. One partial jaw exhibits isodont dentition with blunt tipped, mesiodistally compressed crowns and striated enamel. These features are shared with the Early Triassic genus Utatsusaurus known from coeval deposits in Japan and British Columbia. An additional specimen exhibits a different dentition characterized by relatively small, rounded posterior teeth resembling other Early Triassic ichthyopterygians, particularly Grippia. This Nevada assemblage marks a southward latitudinal extension for Early Triassic ichthyopterygians along the eastern margin of Panthalassa and indicates repeated trans-hemispheric dispersal events in Early Triassic ichthyopterygians. PMID:26855868

Stable carbon isotope ratios in both inorganic and organic reservoirs have been widely applied to model environmental and sedimentological changes on a global scale. Most studies dealing with major extinction events have used the record of inorganic carbon. In this paper the authors report the relation between shifts in carbon-13 content of organic matter and coexisting carbonate fractions at a major extinction event, the Permian/Triassic boundary. They found that both [delta][sup 13]C[sub carb] and [delta][sup 13]C[sub org] of the surface ocean varied dramatically across the boundary, but the fractionation [Delta][sup 13]C between organic matter and carbonate remained constant. This result appreciably restricts the interpretation of changes in the carbon cycle during this critical interval. The new data are best explained by a combination of two mechanisms for variation in [delta][sup 13]C[sub carb]: (1) burial and erosion of organic carbon, with a long time constant; and (2) sequestration of organic carbon into shallow and deep oceanic reservoirs, with a shorter time constant. For application to their case, the first mechanism is limited by possible buildup of marine pCO[sub 2], which would increase the isotopic fractionation factor. The second mechanism is limited in application to short-term transient variations in [delta][sup 13]C. Modeling of the carbon cycle and its variations of [delta][sup 13]C must take both mechanisms into account.

A regional study of the Triassic in the Barentsz Sea (20-32{degree}E, 71-74{degree}N) revealed sequences that correlate seismically for hundreds of kilometers. Recent offshore drilling results enabled them to establish a biostratigraphic time framework. Comparisons with information from onshore outcrops (such as the Svalbard Archipelago) aided the piecing together of these superregional sequences. Seismic character analysis identified three units with composite progradational patterns (Induan, Olenekian, and Anisian). Fluvial, deltaic, and marine deposits can be distinguished and located relative to the paleocoastlines. Corresponding downlap surfaces suggest the development of condensed intervals, predicted to consist of organic-rich source rocks, as was later confirmed by drilling. Regional predictions based on this sequence-stratigraphic approach have proved valuable when correlating and evaluating well information. The sequences identified also help define third-order sea level curves for the area; these improve published curves thought to have global significance.

The first data on the taxonomic composition of the Induan flora of Siberia are presented. The investigation of Triassic reference sections in northern Siberia (eastern Taimyr, Lena-Anabar Trough, Verkhoyansk region) and correlation with volcano-sedimentary complexes of the Tungus and Kuznetsk basins made it possible to establish for the first time the taxonomic composition of the flora from the Induan Stage of Siberia. Its composition is heterogeneous, forming two large plant formations, which occupied different ecological niches. On the eastern coastal-marine margins of Siberia (eastern Taimyr, Olenek coast, Verkhoyansk region), the Induan flora was largely characterized by lepidophytic ( Tomiostrobus) plants, while in the intracontinental areas (Tungus and Kuznetsk basins, partly Verkhoyansk region), it was characterized by Equisetales-Filicales communities.

The documented Tethyan-wide time-corresponding appearance of the enigmatic conodont genera Eurygnathodus and Platyvillosus in shallow shelfal and epeiric seas is a characteristic feature of Lower Triassic conodont evolutionary development. These appearances are closely linked to changes in ocean water chemistry, sea-level and major carbon isotopic events. Their common and widespread distribution around the Induan-Olenekian boundary (Eurygnathodus) and the Smithian-Spathian boundary (Platyvillosus) is marked by large positive C-isotope excursions which hints to a link between their evolution and oceanographic changes of presently unknown background. As the two genera morphologically mimic conodonts of platform-type, which normally prefer open marine deeper neritic habitats, their spread in shallow shelf areas could be linked to a palaeoceanic change towards short-termed more open-marine conditions. The successive but punctuated occurrence of these morphologically similar forms therefore suggests a palaeoceanically controlled evolution.

The construction of an astronomical timescale for the early Paleogene is hampered by ambiguities in the number, correlation and tuning of 405-kyr eccentricity related cycles in deep marine records from ODP cores and land-based sections. The two most competing age models result in astronomical ages for the K/Pg boundary that differ by ~750 kyr (~66.0 Ma of Vandenberghe et al. (2012) versus 65.25 Ma of Westerhold et al. (2012); these ages in turn are consistent with proposed ages for the Fish Canyon sanidine (FCs) that differ by ~300 kyr (28.201 Ma of Kuiper et al. (2008) versus 27.89 Ma of Westerhold et al. (2012)); an even older age of 28.294 Ma is proposed based on a statistical optimization model (Renne et al., 2011). The astronomically calibrated FCs age of 28.201 ± 0.046 Ma of Kuiper et al. (2008), which is consistent with the astronomical age of ~66.0 Ma for the K/Pg boundary, is currently adopted in the standard geological timescale (GTS2012). Here we combine new and published data in an attempt to solve the controversy and arrive at a stable nuemrical timescale for the early Paleogene. Supporting their younger age model, Westerhold et al. (2012) argue that the tuning of Miocene sections in the Mediterranean, which underlie the older FCs age of Kuiper et al. (2008) and, hence, the coupled older early Paleogene age model of Vandenberghe et al. (2012), might be too old by three precession cycles. We thoroughly rechecked this tuning; distinctive cycle patterns related to eccentricity and precession-obliquity interference make a younger tuning that would be consistent with the younger astronomical age of 27.89 Ma for the FCs of Westerhold et al. (2012) challenging. Next we compared youngest U/Pb zircon and astronomical ages for a number of ash beds in the tuned Miocene section of Monte dei Corvi. These ages are indistinguishable, indicating that the two independent dating methods yield the same age when the same event is dated. This is consistent with results

Early Triassic coals are unknown, and Middle Triassic coals are rare and thin. The Early Triassic coal gap began with extinction of peat-forming plants at the end of the Permian (ca. 250 Ma), with no coal known anywhere until Middle Triassic (243 Ma). Permian levels of plant diversity and peat thickness were not recovered until Late Triassic (230 Ma). Tectonic and climatic explanations for the coal gap fail because deposits of fluctuating sea levels and sedimentary facies and paleosols commonly found in coal-bearing sequences are present also in Early Triassic rocks. Nor do we favor explanations involving evolutionary advances in the effectiveness of fungal decomposers, insects or tetrapod herbivores, which became cosmopolitan and much reduced in diversity across the Permian-Triassic boundary. Instead, we favor explanations involving extinction of peat-forming plants at the Permian-Triassic boundary, followed by a hiatus of some 10 m.y. until newly evolved peat-forming plants developed tolerance to the acidic dysaerobic conditions of wetlands. This view is compatible not only with the paleobotanical record of extinction of swamp plants, but also with indications of a terminal Permian productivity crash from {delta}{sup 13}C{sub org} and total organic carbon of both nonmarine and shallow marine shales. 205 refs., 3 figs., 3 tabs.

Rates of extinction vary greatly through geological time, with losses particularly concentrated in mass extinctions. Species duration at other times varies greatly, but the reasons for this are unclear. Geographical range correlates with lineage duration amongst marine invertebrates, but it is less clear how far this generality extends to other groups in other habitats. It is also unclear whether a wide geographical distribution makes groups more likely to survive mass extinctions. Here we test for extinction selectivity amongst terrestrial vertebrates across the end-Triassic event. We demonstrate that terrestrial vertebrate clades with larger geographical ranges were more resilient to extinction than those with smaller ranges throughout the Triassic and Jurassic. However, this relationship weakened with increasing proximity to the end-Triassic mass extinction, breaking down altogether across the event itself. We demonstrate that these findings are not a function of sampling biases; a perennial issue in studies of this kind. PMID:26261053

Slices of polycyclic metasediments (marbles and meta-cherts) are tectonically amalgamated with the polydeformed basement of the Dent Blanche tectonic system along a major Alpine shear zone in the Western Alps (Becca di Salé area, Valtournenche Valley). A combination of techniques (structural analysis at various scales, metamorphic petrology, geochronology and trace element geochemistry) was applied to determine the age and composition of accessory phases (titanite, allanite and zircon) and their relation to major minerals. The results are used to reconstruct the polyphase structural and metamorphic histories, comprising both pre-Alpine and Alpine cycles. The pre-Alpine evolution is associated with low-pressure high-temperature metamorphism related to Permo-Triassic lithospheric thinning. In meta-cherts, microtextural relations indicate coeval growth of allanite and garnet during this stage, at ~ 300 Ma. Textures of zircon also indicate crystallisation at HT conditions; ages scatter from 263 to 294 Ma, with a major cluster of data at ~ 276 Ma. In impure marble, U-Pb analyses of titanite domains (with variable Al and F contents) yield apparent 206Pb/238U dates range from Permian to Jurassic. Chemical and isotopic data suggest that titanite formed at Permian times and was then affected by (extension-related?) fluid circulation during the Triassic and Jurassic, which redistributed major elements (Al and F) and partially opened the U-Pb system. The Alpine cycle lead to early blueschist facies assemblages, which were partly overprinted under greenschist facies conditions. The strong Alpine compressional overprint disrupted the pre-Alpine structural imprint and/or reactivated earlier structures. The pre-Alpine metamorphic record, preserved in these slices of metasediments, reflects the onset of the Permo-Triassic lithospheric extension to Jurassic rifting.

Students often have difficulties in appreciating just how old the earth and the universe are. While they can simply memorize a number, they really do not understand just how big that number really is, in comparison with other, more familiar student referents like the length of a human lifetime or how long it takes to eat a pizza. (See, e.g., R.D. Trend 2001, J. Research in Science Teaching 38(2): 191-221) Students, and members of the general public, also display such well-known misconceptions as the "Flintstone chronology" of believing that human beings and dinosaurs walked the earth at the same time. (In the classic American cartoon "The Flintstones," human beings used dinosaurs as draft animals. As scientists we know this is fiction, but not all members of the public understand that.) In an interdisciplinary undergraduate college class that dealt with astronomy, cosmology, and biological evolution, I used a familiar activity to try to improve student understanding of the concept of time's vastness. Students walked through a pre-determined 600-step path which provided a spatial analogy to the geological timescale. They stopped at various points and engaged in some pre-determined discussions and debates. This activity is as old as the hills, but reports of its effectiveness or lack thereof are quite scarce. This paper demonstrates that this activity was effective for a general-audience, college student population in the U.S. The growth of student understandings of the geological timescale was significant as a result of this activity. Students did develop an understanding of time's vastness and were able to articulate this understanding in various ways. This growth was monitored through keeping track of several exam questions and through pre- and post- analysis of student writings. In the pre-writings, students often stated that they had "no idea" about how to illustrate the size of the geological timescale to someone else. While some post-time walk responses

Solar energetic particles and magnetic fields reach the Earth through the interplanetary medium and affect it in various ways, producing beautiful aurorae, but also electrical blackouts and damage to our technology-dependent economy. The root of energetic solar outputs is the solar activity cycle, which is most likely caused by dynamo processes inside the Sun. It is a formidable task to accurately predict the amplitude, onset and peak timings of a solar cycle. After reviewing all solar cycle prediction methods, including empirical as well as physical model-based schemes, I will describe what we have learned from both validation and nonvalidation of cycle 24 forecasts, and how to refine the model-based schemes for upcoming cycle 25 forecasts. Recent observations indicate that within a solar cycle there are shorter time-scale 'space weather' features, such as bursts of various forms of activity with approximately one year periodicity. I will demonstrate how global tachocline dynamics could play a crucial role in producing such space weather. The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

The Lunar TimeScale should be reevaluated -- suggest remote sensing studies of lunar crater rays by B. Ray Hawke (University of Hawaii) and colleagues at the University of Hawaii, NovaSol, Cornell University, National Air and Space Museum, and Northwestern University. These scientists have found that the mere presence of crater rays is not a reliable indicator that the crater is young, as once thought, and that the working definition of the Copernican/Eratosthenian (C/E) boundary should be reconsidered. The team used Earth-based spectral and radar data with FeO, TiO2, and optical maturity maps derived from Clementine UVVIS images to determine the origin and composition of selected lunar ray segments. They conclude that the optical maturity parameter, which uses chemical analyses of lunar samples as its foundation, should be used to redefine the C/E boundary. Under this classification, the Copernican System would be defined as the time required for an immature surface to reach full optical maturity.

The dynamics of nanoscale objects is a very interesting field of research with a strong technological impact. Still, the combination of a technique resolving (sub)nanometer particles within a time frame relevant to observe dynamics is a very challenging task. Due to the inherent atomic-scale resolution, scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) is an ideal candidate to achieve this goal. Nevertheless, in most physical systems the dynamic events of the objects under investigation cannot be resolved by conventional STM image acquisition and will only reveal an average trace of the moving object. This is why a strong drive exists to develop new functionalities of STM, which allow studying dynamic events at the nanoscale. We address this issue, for vortex matter in NbSe2, by driving the vortices using an ac magnetic field and probing the induced periodic tunnel current modulations. Our results reveal different dynamical modes of the driven vortex lattice. In addition, by extending a known functionality of STM, (i.e. the `Lazy Fisherman' technique) we can use single pixel information to obtain the overall dynamics of the vortex lattice with submillisecond time resolution and subnanometer spatial resolution. This work is supported by the FWO and the Methusalem funding of the Flemish government.

Meaningful auditory stimuli such as speech and music often vary simultaneously along multiple timescales. Thus, listeners must selectively attend to, and selectively ignore, separate but intertwined temporal features. The current study aimed to identify and characterize the neural network specifically involved in this feature-selective attention to time. We used a novel paradigm where listeners judged either the duration or modulation rate of auditory stimuli, and in which the stimulation, working memory demands, response requirements, and task difficulty were held constant. A first analysis identified all brain regions where individual brain activation patterns were correlated with individual behavioral performance patterns, which thus supported temporal judgments generically. A second analysis then isolated those brain regions that specifically regulated selective attention to temporal features: Neural responses in a bilateral fronto-parietal network including insular cortex and basal ganglia decreased with degree of change of the attended temporal feature. Critically, response patterns in these regions were inverted when the task required selectively ignoring this feature. The results demonstrate how the neural analysis of complex acoustic stimuli with multiple temporal features depends on a fronto-parietal network that simultaneously regulates the selective gain for attended and ignored temporal features. PMID:23978652

In northwest Texas, upper Permian to lowermost Triassic hematite-cemented detrital sedimentary rocks, which include a small number of regionally extensive ash beds, were deposited during the time interval of the greatest mass extinction event sequences in Earth history. The magnetic polarity stratigraphy, as well as key rock magnetic properties, of the upper Whitehorse Group (WH) and Quartermaster formations (QM) at selected sections in the Palo Duro Basin, have been determined using thermal, and chemical demagnetization approaches and anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility, acquisition of isothermal remanent magnetization (IRM) and backfield demagnetization, and thermal demagnetization of three component IRM methods. Demagnetization results show that the WH/QM contains a primary/near-primary characteristic remanent magnetization at each level sampled and thus the magnetic polarity stratigraphy for each section can be compared with existing polarity timescales across the Permian-Triassic boundary. Estimated site mean directions yield a paleomagnetic pole for the latest Permian for North America of 57.8°N, 130.6°E from 38 sampled sites.

Alpine Permo-Triassic rock salt (age 200-250 million years) was shown several times to contain living extremely halophilic Archaea. These organisms might stem from ancient populations that became entrapped and persisted in the rock salt since then. For this reason, rock salt is considered a promising model system for the search for bacterial extraterrestrial life. In our studies on biodiversity in Alpine rock salt, we employed both culture-dependent and culture-independent, PCR-based methods. The latter approach indicated the presence of at least 12 distinct sequence types (phylotypes) in our samples, all of which belonged to the extremely halophilic Archaea. None of the recovered sequences was identical to sequences from databases, suggesting the avoidance of contaminants during experimental procedures. Two phylotypes could be assigned to taxonomically described members of this family; the remaining ten phylotypes appeared only remotely related to known genera of the extremely halophilic Archaea. In contrast, attempts to isolate organisms from the same sample on 15 different growth media so far yielded only two groups of isolates that could be differentiated based on their 16S rRNA genes. One group was very similar to Halococcus strains that we frequently isolated from Alpine rock salt; the other group was closely correlated to one of our novel phylotypes. Analyses of whole cell protein patterns allowed to further differentiate the latter group into two different subgroups that could not be distinguished at the molecular level. These results show that both culture-dependent and culture-independent strategies have to be applied in order to obtain a more complete view of microbial biodiversity in Permo-Triassic rock salt: culture-independent methods yield information on the gross microbial diversity in rock salt, whereas subtle differences can currently only be registered between cultivated strains.

In this study the time-scales of variability of several weather elements are explored by season and location across the globe, emphasizing the Northern Hemisphere and especially the USA. The resulting description is useful because regions that exhibit low frequency variability (i.e. longer periods than the 2-5 days synoptic-scale) are assumed to be related more directly to changes in boundary conditions (e.g. anomalies of ENSO-related sea-surface temperature [SST], snow cover, etc.). Therefore, this low frequency variability may be predictable at greater ranges than those for which numerical weather prediction is helpful.New as well as established measures of persistence and frequency dependence are used and intercompared. In particular, the standard deviation of the differences between adjacent period means, when compared over a range of period lengths, reflects both autocorrelation and (if applicable) cycle time. Frequency dependence is thereby summarized with minimal computation.The geographical distribution of the amplitude (amount of variability depends largely on latitude and the upstream geographical environment (i.e. higher latitude and continentality of upstream environment tend to increase variability). At most locations, variability is greatest (lowest) during the cold (warm) seasons of the year. The geographical distribution of the dominant frequencies of variability are examined by season for Northern Hemisphere sea-level pressure and 700 hPa geopotential height, and USA surface temperature and precipitation. It is demonstrated that the dominant frequencies tend to vary in parallel across all four fields.In general, weather variables are found to vary at relatively low frequency (long periods) at high latitudes and, to a lesser extent, at subtropical latitudes. At mid-latitude, low frequency variability prevails most over the blocking regions in the eastern and central North Pacific and North Atlantic oceans. High frequency variability occurs in the

Preliminary results of an ongoing project aimed at deciphering the micromechanics and porosity evolution associated to brittle deformation of Triassic dolostones are presented. Samples collected from high-angle, oblique-slip, 10's to 100's m-throw normal faults crosscutting Mesozoic carbonates of the Neo Tethys (Campanian-Lucanian Platform) are investigated by mean of field geological mapping, optical microscopy, SEM and image analyses. The goal is to characterize in detail composition, texture and porosity of cataclastic rocks in order to assess the structural architecture of dolomitic fault cores. Moreover, the present study addresses the time-space control exerted by several micro-mechanisms such as intragranular extensional fracturing, chipping and shear fracturing, which took place during grain rolling and crushing within the evolving faults, on type, amount, dimensions and distribution of micropores present within the cataclastic fault cores. Study samples are representative of well-exposed dolomitic fault cores of oblique-slip normal faults trending either NW-SE or NE-SW. The high-angle normal faults crosscut the Mesozoic carbonates of the Campanian-Lucanian Platform, which overrode the Lagonegro succession by mean of low-angle thrust faults. Fault throws are measured by considering the displaced thrust faults as key markers after large scale field mapping (1:10,000 scale) of the study areas. In the field, hand samples were selected according to their distance from main slip surfaces and, in some case, along secondary slip surfaces. Microscopy analysis of about 100 oriented fault rock samples shows that, mostly, the study cataclastic rocks are made up of dolomite and sparse, minute survivor silicate grains deriving from the Lagonegro succession. In order to quantitatively assess the main textural classes, a great attention is paid to the grain-matrix ratio, grain sphericity, grain roundness, and grain sorting. By employing an automatic box-counting technique

Replace this text with your abstract Ever since the invention of the laser 50 years ago and its application in nonlinear optics, scientists have been striving to extend coherent laser beams into the x-ray region of the spectrum. Very recently however, the prospects for tabletop coherent sources, with attosecond pulse durations, at very short wavelengths even in the hard x-ray region of the spectrum at wavelengths < 1nm, have brightened considerably. These advances are possible by taking nonlinear optics techniques to an extreme, and are the direct result of a new ability to manipulate electrons on the fastest, attosecond, time-scales of our natural world. My talk will discuss new experimental data that demonstrates high harmonic generation of laser-like, fully coherent, 10 attosecond duration, soft x-ray beams at photon energies around 0.5keV. Several applications will also be discussed, including making a movie of how electron orbitals in a molecule change shape as a molecule breaks apart, following how fast a magnetic material can flip orientation, understanding how fast heat flows in a nanocircuit, or building a microscope without lenses. [4pt] [1] T. Popmintchev et al., ``Phase matched upconversion of coherent ultrafast laser light into the soft and hard x-ray regions of the spectrum'', PNAS 106, 10516 (2009). [0pt] [2] C. LaOVorakiat et al., ``Ultrafast Soft X-Ray Magneto-Optics at the M-edge Using a Tabletop High-Harmonic Source'', Physical Review Letters 103, 257402 (2009). [0pt] [3] M. Siemens et al. ``Measurement of quasi-ballistic heat transport across nanoscale interfaces using ultrafast coherent soft x-ray beams'', Nature Materials 9, 26 (2010). [0pt] [4] K. Raines et al., ``Three-dimensional structure determination from a single view,'' Nature 463, 214 (2010). [0pt] [5] W. Li et al., ``Time-resolved Probing of Dynamics in Polyatomic Molecules using High Harmonic Generation'', Science 322, 1207 (2008).

Spatially resolved, thermal power deposition of limited duration into a finite volume of reactive gas is the initiator for a deflagration-to-detonation transition (DDT) on the microsecond timescale. The reactive Euler equations with one-step Arrhenius kinetics are used to derive novel formulas for velocity and temperature variation that describe the physical phenomena characteristic of DDTs. A transformation of the variables is shown to yield a canonical equation system, independent of the activation energy. Numerical solutions of the reactive Euler equations are used to describe the detailed sequence of reactive gasdynamic processes leading to an overdriven planar detonation far from the power deposition location. Results are presented for deposition into a region isolated from the planar boundary of the reactive gas as well as for that adjacent to the boundary. The role of compressions and shocks reflected from the boundary into the partially reacted hot gas is described. The quantitative dependences of DDT evolution on the magnitude of thermal power deposition and activation energy are identified.

Spatially resolved, thermal power deposition of limited duration into a finite volume of reactive gas is the initiator for a deflagration-to-detonation transition (DDT) on the microsecond timescale. The reactive Euler equations with one-step Arrhenius kinetics are used to derive novel formulas for velocity and temperature variation that describe the physical phenomena characteristic of DDTs. A nonlinear transformation of the variables is shown to yield a canonical equation system, independent of the activation energy. Numerical solutions of the reactive Euler equations are used to describe the detailed sequence of reactive gas dynamic processes leading to an overdriven planar detonation far from the power deposition location. Results are presented for deposition into a region isolated from the planar boundary of the reactive gas as well as for that adjacent to the boundary. The role of compressions and shocks reflected from the boundary into the partially reacted hot gas is described. The quantitative dependences of DDT evolution on the magnitude of thermal power deposition and activation energy are identified.

Sensory processing is associated with gamma frequency oscillations (30–80 Hz) in sensory cortices. This raises the question whether gamma oscillations can be directly involved in the representation of time-varying stimuli, including stimuli whose timescale is longer than a gamma cycle. We are interested in the ability of the system to reliably distinguish different stimuli while being robust to stimulus variations such as uniform time-warp. We address this issue with a dynamical model of spiking neurons and study the response to an asymmetric sawtooth input current over a range of shape parameters. These parameters describe how fast the input current rises and falls in time. Our network consists of inhibitory and excitatory populations that are sufficient for generating oscillations in the gamma range. The oscillations period is about one-third of the stimulus duration. Embedded in this network is a subpopulation of excitatory cells that respond to the sawtooth stimulus and a subpopulation of cells that respond to an onset cue. The intrinsic gamma oscillations generate a temporally sparse code for the external stimuli. In this code, an excitatory cell may fire a single spike during a gamma cycle, depending on its tuning properties and on the temporal structure of the specific input; the identity of the stimulus is coded by the list of excitatory cells that fire during each cycle. We quantify the properties of this representation in a series of simulations and show that the sparseness of the code makes it robust to uniform warping of the timescale. We find that resetting of the oscillation phase at stimulus onset is important for a reliable representation of the stimulus and that there is a tradeoff between the resolution of the neural representation of the stimulus and robustness to time-warp. PMID:19412531

Observations made with the aid of a magnetometer on the Pioneer Venus Orbiter have shown large-scale horizontal magnetic fields in the dayside ionosphere of Venus. According to Cloutier and Daniell (1981), the observed magnetic structures may be quasi-steady features produced by an ionospheric current system driven by solar wind interaction. Russell et al. (1983) have suggested that the altitude profiles of the horizontal field on different orbits exhibit a pattern which can be interpreted as phases in the temporal evolution of an initial state in which the ionosphere was permeated with magnetosheath-like fields. The present investigation is concerned with the argument in favor of a temporal versus spatial explanation for some of the observed field structure. A calculation indicates that the diffusion time for ionospheric fields is long enough to justify attributing the observed fields to the 'memory' of the Venus ionosphere in certain regions.

The Triassic was a time of turmoil, as life recovered from the most devastating of all mass extinctions, the Permo-Triassic event 252 million years ago. The Triassic marine rock succession of southwest China provides unique documentation of the recovery of marine life through a series of well dated, exceptionally preserved fossil assemblages in the Daye, Guanling, Zhuganpo, and Xiaowa formations. New work shows the richness of the faunas of fishes and reptiles, and that recovery of vertebrate faunas was delayed by harsh environmental conditions and then occurred rapidly in the Anisian. The key faunas of fishes and reptiles come from a limited area in eastern Yunnan and western Guizhou provinces, and these may be dated relative to shared stratigraphic units, and their palaeoenvironments reconstructed. The Luoping and Panxian biotas, both from the Guanling Formation, are dated as Anisian (Pelsonian) on the basis of conodonts and radiometric dates, the former being slightly older than the latter. The Xingyi biota is from the Zhuganpo Formation, and is Ladinian or early Carnian, while the Guanling biota is from the overlying Xiaowa Formation, dated as Carnian. The first three biotas include extensive benthos and burrowing in the sediments, and they were located in restricted basins close to shore. Further, even though the Luoping and Panxian biotas are of similar age, their faunas differ significantly, reflecting perhaps palaeogeographically isolated basins. Between the time of the Xingyi and Guanling biotas, there was a major transgression, and the Guanling biota is entirely different in character from the other three, being dominated by pelagic forms such as large floating crinoids attached to logs, very large ichthyosaurs and thalattosaurs, and pseudoplanktonic bivalves, with no benthos and no burrowing. Phylogenetic study of the fishes and marine reptiles shows apparently explosive diversification among 20 actinopterygian lineages very early in the Early Triassic

We explore the rate of collisions among bodies in the present-day Kuiper Disk as a function of the total mass and population size structure of the disk. We find that collisional evolution is an important evolutionary process in the disk as a whole, and indeed, that it is likely the dominant evolutionary process beyond approx. 42 AU, where dynamical instability timescales exceed the age of the solar system. Two key findings we report from this modeling work are: that unless the disk's population structure is sharply truncated for radii smaller than approx. 1-2 km, collisions between comets and smaller debris are occurring so frequently in the disk, and with high enough velocities, that the small body (i.e., KM-class object) population in the disk has probably developed into a collisional cascade, thereby implying that the Kuiper Disk comets may not all be primordial, and that the rate of collisions of smaller bodies with larger 100 less R less 400 km objects (like 1992QB(sub 1) and its cohorts) is so low that there appears to be a dilemma in explaining how QB(sub 1)s could have grown by binary accretion in the disk as we know it. Given these findings, it appears that either the present-day paradigm for the formation of Kuiper Disk is failed in some fundamental respect, or that the present-day disk is no longer representative of the ancient structure from which it evolved. This in turn suggests the intriguing possibility that the present-day Kuiper Disk evolved through a more erosional stage reminiscent of the disks around the stars Beta Pictorus, alpha PsA, and alpha Lyr.

The EON software is designed for simulations of the state-to-state evolution of atomic scale systems over timescales greatly exceeding that of direct classical dynamics. States are defined as collections of atomic configurations from which a minimization of the potential energy gives the same inherent structure. The time evolution is assumed to be governed by rare events, where transitions between states are uncorrelated and infrequent compared with the timescale of atomic vibrations. Several methods for calculating the state-to-state evolution have been implemented in EON, including parallel replica dynamics, hyperdynamics and adaptive kinetic Monte Carlo. Global optimization methods, including simulated annealing, basin hopping and minima hopping are also implemented. The software has a client/server architecture where the computationally intensive evaluations of the interatomic interactions are calculated on the client-side and the state-to-state evolution is managed by the server. The client supports optimization for different computer architectures to maximize computational efficiency. The server is written in Python so that developers have access to the high-level functionality without delving into the computationally intensive components. Communication between the server and clients is abstracted so that calculations can be deployed on a single machine, clusters using a queuing system, large parallel computers using a message passing interface, or within a distributed computing environment. A generic interface to the evaluation of the interatomic interactions is defined so that empirical potentials, such as in LAMMPS, and density functional theory as implemented in VASP and GPAW can be used interchangeably. Examples are given to demonstrate the range of systems that can be modeled, including surface diffusion and island ripening of adsorbed atoms on metal surfaces, molecular diffusion on the surface of ice and global structural optimization of nanoparticles.

Milankovitch forcing is one of the main drivers of cyclic climate changes, and cyclicities of Milankovitch cycles recorded in sedimentary rhythms would give a clue to establish the astronomically calibrated age model. Bedded cherts consist of rhythmical alternations of a chert bed and a shale bed, which are considered to have been formed as a result of cyclic changes in accumulation rate of biogenic SiO2 under extremely slow and continuous accumulation of pelagic clay. Although Milankovitch cycle origin of bedded chert was suggested by several arthors (e.g. Hori et al., 1993), such an origin has been still unproved. Ikeda et al. (2008) demonstrated the Milankovitch cycle origin of the middle Triassic bedded chert based on the similarities in the hierarchy of dominant cyclicities and the nature of amplitude modulation between Milankovitch cycles and the chert bed thickness cycles. However, because the errors of age determinations in the middle Triassic bedded chert are too large, we could not orbitally tune the bedded chert sequence to the astronomical timescale. In this study, we extend our research to the upper Triassic (Raetian) to lower Jurassic (Toarcian) bedded chert sequence and demonstrate its Milankovitch cycle origin. The Triassic/Jurassic (T/J) boundary was recognized as a radiolarian faunal turnover (Carter & Hori, 2005). Because the astronomically calibrated cyclostratigraphy was already established using the upper Triassic (Carnian) to lower Jurassic (Hettangian) lacustrine sequences of Pangea including the T/J boundary horizon (e.g. Olsen & Kent, 1999; Whiteside et al., 2007), we could compare our bedded chert sequence with them. We conducted geologic survey at Katsuyama section (e.g. Carter & Hori, 2005), in Inuyama area, central Japan. The average duration of ca. 20 ky for a chert-shale couplet based on radiolarian biostratigraphy is consistent with the assumption that a chert-shale couplet represents a precession cycle. Spectral analysis of bed

During field work in the Triassic of Jordan fossil wood remains have been discovered at five horizons (S-1AR-S-5AR) of the Late Triassic (Carnian) Abu Ruweis Formation in NW Jordan. In most horizons wood remains are too badly preserved to allow for a detailed xylotomic investigation. Only two horizons provided material which exhibited anatomical details: (1) in horizon S-1AR we found rare and rather small fragments of woody charcoal exhibiting cellular details (representing the first macroscopic evidence of paleo-wildfires from the Late Triassic of the Middle East), and (2) in horizon S-5AR surfaces of partly compressed (gagatized) and partly permineralized wood fragments exhibited anatomical details that could be investigated by means of scanning electron microscopy. All wood remains that allow for a detailed investigation show features typical of gymnosperms, but at the moment nothing can be said about a more specific taxonomic affinity of most of the woods, although wood from horizon S-5AR exhibits characteristics of protopinoid wood. Our data provide evidence that gymnospermous woody vegetation cover has existed in the source areas of the sediments deposited in the Abu Ruweis Formation in Jordan and that this woody vegetation occasionally experienced wildfires. This, together with lithological data, provides evidence for a seasonally dry (maybe even arid) climate during deposition of the Abu Ruweis Formation. On a larger scale our findings contribute to the very scarce current knowledge about Late Triassic wildfires on the entire continent Gondwana, from where so far only three records of macro-charcoals, as undisputed evidence of paleo-wildfires, have been published from this period.

A reptile specimen from the Lystrosaurus Assemblage Zone of the Beaufort Group, lowermost Triassic of South Africa, represents a new procolophonoid parareptile. Sauropareion anoplus gen. et sp. nov. is identified as the sister taxon of Procolophonidae in a phylogenetic analysis of procolophonoids. Stratigraphic calibration of the most parsimonious tree reveals that four of the six procolophonoid lineages originating in the Permian Period extended into the succeeding Triassic Period. This relatively high taxic survivorship (67%) across the Permo-Triassic boundary strongly suggests that procolophonoids were little if at all affected by the mass extinction event that punctuated the end of the Palaeozoic Era (ca. 251 million years ago). PMID:11571052

In this work, a new type of relaxation systems is considered. Their prominent feature is that they comprise two distinct epochs, one is slow regular motion and another is fast chaotic motion. Unlike traditionally studied slow-fast systems that have smooth manifolds of slow motions in the phase space and fast trajectories between them, in this new type one observes, apart the same geometric objects, areas of transient chaos. Alternating periods of slow regular motions and fast chaotic ones as well as transitions between them result in a specific chaotic attractor with chaos on a fast timescale. We formulate basic properties of such attractors in the framework of discrete-time systems and consider several examples. Finally, we provide an important application of such systems, the neuronal electrical activity in the form of chaotic spike-burst oscillations.

The end-Triassic mass extinction (ETE), at 201.4 million years ago, is one of the five largest ecologic disasters of the Phanerozoic eon. Few geologic sections offer the potential to reconstruct environmental and ecological changes at this time in the marine realm with global significance. The Kennecott Point Formation in Haida Gwaii (formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands), British Columbia, preserves a thick sequence of calcareous shales and siltstones deposited on late Triassic basaltic rocks interpreted to be an oceanic plateau resting within the Panthalassic basin, the largest ocean basin at the time of the Triassic-Jurassic transition. This section, which spans the late Norian to the mid-Hettangian, is plausibly the most representative of the global ocean system at this time; however, environmental reconstructions have been mostly based on bulk carbon and sulfur isotope records. Here, we present a record of molecular fossils (biomarkers) and indices indicative of ecological and redox changes (i.e., algal steranes and bacterial hopanes, gammacerane index, homohopane index, 2- and 3- methyl hopane indices) from the Kennecott Point Formation to argue for a period of low oxygen conditions associated with increased stratification, ecological changes, and disrupted nutrient cycling directly preceding the end-Triassic mass extinction. We couple these results with biomarkers indicative of terrestrial input and vegetation disturbance (tricyclic diterpanes and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) to clarify the relationship between ocean biogeochemistry and environmental changes in the terrestrial realm. This record provides new evidence for changing marine conditions preceding and associated with the ETE and allows for a more rigorous investigation into the chronology of events hypothesized to be mechanistically linked to this mass extinction, including abrupt global warming, major alterations to marine primary productivity, and terrestrial vegetation die-off.

adapted to coastal plain wetland environments with the return of humid conditions in the Middle to early Late Triassic. The present data constitute the first paleontologically substantiated record for the existence of Permian strata in the Blue Nile Basin. The new results allow for the first time a reliable biostratigraphic subdivision of the central Ethiopia Karoo and its correlation with coeval strata of adjacent regions in Gondwana. From a phytogeographic point of view, the overall microfloral evidence is in support of the position of central Ethiopia occupying the northern part of the southern Gondwana palynofloral province. In view of palaeoecological and paleoclimatic conditions, the microfloral change from the base to the top of the studied section may indicate a response to shifting climatic belts from warm- and cool-temparate climate in the earliest Permian to progressively drier seasonal conditions at successively higher palaeolatitudes during the Late Permian to Middle Triassic.

During the Late Triassic, despite new important originations a general decline in biodiversity was marked by a series of steps between the Carnian and the Rhaetian, with the T-J boundary event as final strike. The Reingraben Event and the Julian-Tuvalian boundary are two first massive turnovers; the Carnian-Norian boundary records a major vertebrate turnover, the early to middle Norian boundary comes up with a turnover in both the reefal and pelagic fauna and the most dramatic loss (70%) in biodiversity among Late Triassic molluscs. Around the Norian-Rhaetian boundary, the pelagic fauna of higher trophic level starts declining, whereas the reefs experience a blooming time. A refined stratigraphy and a construction of a well-calibrated carbon isotope reference curve are necessary to decipher between gradual environmental changes and abrupt or even catastrophic events during the Late Triassic. Improvement in the Upper Triassic d13Ccarb curve shows that after a gentle increase until the base of the Carnian, the early Carnian records three negative excursions of 2 to 3‰ amplitude. The two first excursions rebound to previous values, whereas the third negative excursion, at the Julian-Tuvalian boundary, is followed by a positive excursion up to +5‰. The remaining Upper Carnian displays stabile values around 2‰. The Carnian-Norian boundary interval is marked by a minor increase of less than 1‰. The Early to Middle Norian crisis is marked by a turning point from Early Norian slowly increasing carbon isotope values (up to 3.5‰) to gradually decreasing ones until 1.8‰ at the base of the Rhaetian. This Norian decrease display two accelerated steps, one in the middle Norian and the other one just after the Norian-Rhaetian Boundary. This last 1‰ decrease corresponds however to an important change in lithology. The values show then a small increase during the early Rhaetian, with a maximum in the middle Rhaetian (at 2.4‰). The isotopic record remains constant

The Lower-Middle Triassic Aghdarband Basin, NE Iran, consists of a strongly deformed arc-related marine succession deposited along the southern margin of Eurasia (Turan domain) in a highly mobile tectonic context. The marine deposits are unconformably covered by Upper Triassic continental beds, marking the Cimmerian collision of Iran with Eurasia. The Aghdarband Basin is a key-area for the study of the Cimmerian events, as the Triassic units were severely folded and thrust short time after the collision and were unconformably covered by the gently deformed Middle Jurassic succession which seals the Cimmerian structures. The Triassic deposits form a north-verging thrust stack interacting with an important left-lateral strike-slip shear zone exposed in the northernmost part of the basin. Transpressional structures as strike-slip faults and vertical folds are here associated with high angle reverse faults forming intricate positive flower structures. Systematic asymmetry of major and parasitic folds, as well as their geometrical features indicate that they generated in a left-lateral transpressional regime roughly coeval to thrust imbrication to the south, as a consequence of a marked strain partitioning. Aim of this presentation is to describe in detail the deformational structures of the Aghdarband region, based on structural mapping and detailed original mesoscopic field analyses, resuming from the excellent work performed in the '70s by Ruttner (1991). Our work is focused on the pre mid-Jurassic structures which can be related to the final stages of the Cimmerian deformation resulting from the oblique collision of the Iranian microplate with the southern margin of Eurasia, the so-called Turan domain. We will finally discuss the kinematic significance of the Late Triassic oblique convergence zone of Aghdarband in the frame of strain partitioning in transpressional deformation. Structural weakness favouring strain partitioning can be related to inversion of syn

The paper focuses on studying the Noether theorem for nonholonomic nonconservative mechanical systems in phase space on timescales. First, the Hamilton equations of nonholonomic nonconservative systems on timescales are established, which is based on the Lagrange equations for nonholonomic systems on timescales. Then, based upon the quasi-invariance of Hamilton action of systems under the infinitesimal transformations with respect to the time and generalized coordinate on timescale, the Noether identity and the conserved quantity of nonholonomic nonconservative systems on timescales are obtained. Finally, an example is presented to illustrate the application of the results.

Forty-two stratigraphic sections in Montana and adjacent parts of Wyoming and Idaho provide the framework for a conodont biostratigraphic and carbonate sedimentologic analysis of Lower Triassic marine rocks. From oldest to youngest, these units are the Dinwoody, Woodside (Red Peak to the east), and Thaynes Formations. The Dinwoody disconformably overlies Upper Permian rocks with little or no physical evidence of a 1 to 6-m.y. hiatus. The initial Triassic transgression was extensive and geologically instantaneous across the study area, and it resulted in deposition of interbedded calcareous mudstone, siltstone, and limestone. The Dinwoody varies in thickness from zero on the northeast to greater than 270 m in the southwest. Maximum thicknesses of Woodside red beds and Thaynes carbonates and siltstones are 244 and 400 m, respectively. Post-Triassic erosion progressively truncated the Thaynes, Woodside, and Dinwoody from north to south across the region. The western margin of the Triassic seaway in the study area is obscured by erosion, structural complexities, igneous activity, and younger sedimentary deposits. The sparse and scattered exposures that remain provide an intriguing mosaic of depositional environments that range from shallow marine to basinal and represent most of Early Triassictime. Lower Triassic rocks produce gas in the Wyoming-Idaho thrust belt, and similar potential may exist in Montana. Conodonts recovered from surface exposures are thermally unaltered except in close proximity to intrusive bodies and within the Medicine Lodge thrust system. This establishes that subsurface units in much of the study area are within the temperature regime for dry gas generation.

The ecosystem reorganization of terrestrial vegetation in the Tunguska River basin, which occurred at the Permian—Triassic boundary, was analyzed. The taxonomic composition of Early Triassic floras of the Tunguska basin involved nearly all the main groups of higher plants, typical of floras of the early Mesophytic, which allows one to study in detail the dynamics of the appearance and the early evolution of the Mesozoic vegetation in the region. The reproductive organs of Gagariostrobus cylindricus (Prynada) Mogutcheva have been described in detail on the basis of the comprehensive study of the type and new materials. In situ spores of Gagariostrobus cylindricus have been studied for the first time with the scanning electron microscope, and the spores have been characterized with an indication of their variation modes. The graphic reconstruction of the Gagariostrobus cylindricus strobilus has been proposed, and data on the status of the parent plant that produced the strobili have been analyzed.

Here we study the dynamics of many-body quantum systems using the time-dependent quantum Monte Carlo method where the evolution is described by ensembles of particles and guide waves. The exponential timescaling inherent to the quantum many-body problem is reduced to polynomial-time computation by solving concurrently a set of coupled Schrodinger equations for the guide waves in physical space and a set of first-order equations for the Monte Carlo walkers. We use effective potentials to account for the local and nonlocal quantum correlations in time-varying fields, where for fermionic states an exchange "hole" is introduced explicitly through screened Coulomb potentials. The walker distributions for the ground states of para- and ortho-helium reproduce well the statistical properties, such as the electron-pair density function, of the real atoms. Our predictions for the dipole response and the ionization of an atom exposed to strong ultrashort optical pulse are in good agreement with the exact results. PMID:19391581

The Sidi Said Maachou area in the Moroccan western Meseta preserves a succession, up to 400 m thick, of hitherto poorly studied continental Triassic deposits. Recent detailed geological mapping proposes a lithostratigraphic subdivision of the predominantly red-coloured siliciclastic deposits into three formations. Laminated mudstones and fine-grained sandstones in the upper part of the Oued Oum Er Rbiaa Formation have the most interesting fossil content including plant impressions, rhizoliths, fish scales, and invertebrate and vertebrate traces. These biogenic remains are partially associated with tool marks, microbially induced sedimentary structures, oscillation ripples, desiccation cracks, and halite pseudomorphs, suggesting sedimentation in a playa-like, fluvio-lacustrine system under semiarid conditions. All tetrapod footprints from these beds are assigned to Brachychirotherium parvum and indistinguishable from other occurrences of the ichnogenus in Central Europe and North America. Supposed trackmakers are archosaurs of the crocodile stem-group (Crurotarsi) that were widely spread over Triassic Pangaea. Because Brachychirotherium is only known from Late Triassic (Carnian-Rhaetian) deposits, the same age is attributed to the footprint horizon of the Oued Oum Er Rbiaa Formation. This is the first record of Brachychirotherium on the African continent and the first record of Triassic tetrapod footprints in Morocco outside of the High Atlas.

The Early Triassic climate is conventionally interpreted to have been warm and ice-free. During this time, three globally recognized depositional sequences developed in response to My-scale eustatic sea-level changes. The rates of My-scale sea-level rise and fall are too fast to attribute to changes in mid-ocean ridge activity and too slow to attribute to typical ~20-400 ky orbital cycles that drive glacio-eustasy. Previous studies in the Middle Devonian, Late Cretaceous, and Middle Eocene greenhouse climates have suggested that significant glacio-eustatic sea-level changes were responsible for sequence development. This suggests that these particular greenhouse periods were not uniformly warm and ice-free. We are testing the hypothesis that My- and orbital-scale sea-level changes in the Early Triassic (Smithian) were driven by glacio- and/or thermo-eustasy. To test this hypothesis, Smithian marine successions from two localities in the western United States (Lower Thaynes Formation) were described on a bed-by-bed basis to provide facies and depositional environment interpretations, as well as put the sections into a sequence stratigraphic framework. Samples were collected from both locations for high-resolution (~1-10 m) oxygen isotopic analysis of conodont apatite. Conodont elements are excellent biostratigraphic indicators and the apatite is less susceptible to diagenetic alteration than carbonate minerals, making conodont apatite a reliable proxy for determining changes in ice volume and seawater temperatures in deep time. In northeastern Utah (Weber Canyon), the Smithian sequence (~240 m) is composed of a mixed carbonate-siliciclastic lowstand systems tract (>40 m) and transgressive systems tract (~110 m), a black shale maximum flooding zone (~15 m), and a carbonate-dominated highstand systems tract (~75 m). In western Utah (Confusion Range), the sequence is composed of a coarse-grained, carbonate-dominated transgressive systems tract (>40 m) and a mixed

Since 2004 the IGS Rapid and Final clock products have been aligned to a highly stable timescale derived from a weighted ensemble of clocks in the IGS network. The timescale is driven mostly by Hydrogen Maser ground clocks though the GPS satellite clocks also carry non-negligible weight, resulting in a timescale having a one-day frequency stability of about 1E-15. However, because of the relatively simple weighting scheme used in the timescale algorithm and because the scale is aligned to UTC by steering it to GPS Time the resulting stability beyond several days suffers. The authors present results of a new 2.0 version of the IGS timescale highlighting the improvements to the algorithm, new modeling considerations, as well as improved timescale stability.

It is pointed out that the study of systems evolving at multiple time-scales is simplified by studying reduced-order models of these systems valid at specific time-scales. The present investigation is concerned with an extension of results on the time-scale decomposition of autonomous systems to that of input-output systems. The results are employed to study conditions under which positive realness of a transfer function is preserved under singular perturbation. Attention is given to the perturbation theory for linear operators, the multiple time-scale structure of autonomous linear systems, the input-output description of two time-scale linear systems, the positive realness of two time-scale systems, and multiple time-scale linear systems.

Asymptotic stability for a periodic system of ordinary differential equations with a small parameter is shown to follow from the stability of the corresponding iterated-average system. Applications are made to biological systems experiencing varying seasonal factors, to large scale dynamical systems that are principally irrotational and to nuclear reactor dynamics. 7 refs.

The Lower Triassic Dinwoody Formation in the Bighorn basin of Wyoming and Montana records the northeasternmost extent of the widespread and rapid Griesbachian transgression onto the Wyoming shelf. Depositional patterns document a progressive change from sparsely fossiliferous, inner-shelf marine conditions in the southwest and west to restricted, marginal-marine environments to the north and east. Characteristic lithologies include greenish-gray calcareous or dolomitic mudstone and siltstone, very thin to thick beds of gypsum, and thin-bedded, commonly laminated dolomite. A formation thickness of approximately 20 m persists throughout most of the basin but diminishes abruptly near the northern and eastern limits of deposition. The Dinwoody is disconformable on the Ervay Member of the Permian Park City Formation except in the northeasternmost part of the basin, where it locally overlies the Pennsylvanian Tensleep Sandstone. Considering the significant time interval involved, physical evidence at the Permian-Triassic boundary is generally limited to an abrupt lithologic change from light-colored shallow marine or intertidal Permian dolomite to greenish-gray Dinwoody siltstone. The Dinwoody grades vertically as well as laterally to the east and north into red beds of the Lower Triassic Red Peak Formation of the Chugwater Group. The Early Triassic depositional environment in the present-day Bighorn basin was hostile. A sparse molluscan fauna was observed at only one of the 20 sections studied, and no conodonts were recovered from Dinwoody carbonates. Significant amounts of gypsum within the Dinwoody suggest periodic high evaporation from hypersaline waters on a low-energy shallow shelf during intervals of reduced terrigenous sediment supply from the north and east. However, sufficient organic material was present to create reducing conditions, as evidenced by greenish rock color and abundant pyrite.

In 1977, the COST G-2 well as drilled in Georges Bank, 132 mi (212 km) east of Nantucket Island to a total depth of 21,874 ft (6667 m). Biostratigraphic studies of 363 sidewall and conventional cores and 695 cutting samples resulted in a detailed zonation from the Late Jurassic to the present. Restudy of the original samples, as well as new preparations from previously unstudied core material, resulted in revision of the zonation of the Late Jurassic and older section. On the basis of our study of pollen and spores, dinoflagellates, nannofossils, and foraminifers, we revised the age sequence as follows: 5856 ft (1785 m) Late Jurassic (Thithonian); 6000 ft (1829 m) Kimmeridgian; 6420 ft (1957 m) Oxfordian; 6818 ft (2078 m) Callovian; 8200 ft (2499 m) Bathonian; 9677 ft (2950 m) Bajocian; 14567 ft (4440 m) Norian (Late Triassic). Norian dinoflagellate cysts and Tasmanites sp. indicate that intermittent normal marine sedimentation was taking place on Georges Bank as early as Norian time, although most of the Triassic section (+14,500 ft or 4420 m to T.D.) interpreted as having been deposited under evaporitic sabkha-like conditions. The Norian dinoflagellates (Noricysta, Heibergella, Hebecysta, Suessia, Dapcodinium, and Rhombodella) include species common to both Arctic Canada and the Tethyan region, indicating a possible Late Triassic marine connection.

Geological studies in the fringe area of the southern Permian basin led to new insights in the distribution and development of the Permian-Triassic sequence. During the Permian, the fringe area formed a platform, attached to the London-Brabant Massif, while during the Triassic it is characterized by strongly subsiding half grabens. In the southern Netherlands, Rotliegende sandstones and conglomerates have a much wider distribution than previously recognized. The Rotliegende deposits are capped by claystones and carbonates of the Upper Permian Zechstein. In the offshore, an important feeder system of clastics from the London-Brabant Massif was active during deposition of the Rotliegende and the Zechstein. In course of time, the location of major sandstone deposition shifted westward. Deposition of the Triassic Buntsandstein was controlled by the development of a large feeder system, which transported clastics from the Vosges northward, through the Roer Valley Graben and West netherlands Basin into the Off Holland Low. This system was responsible for the deposition of the economically important sheet sandstones of the Volpriehausen, Detfurth, Hardegsen, and Solling formations. A regional unconformity occurs below the Solling Formation. The sandstones are capped by claystones, evaporites, and sandstones of the Rot Formation. During deposition of the Muschelkalk, the differences in subsidence decreased and shallow marine sediments are interbedded with evaporites. Several unconformities occur within the Keuper. In the previous half grabens in the southern Netherlands, the Keuper is incomplete, which may be indicative for a possible reversal of the tectonic movements during this period.

As one of the earliest-known mammaliaforms, Haramiyavia clemmenseni from the Rhaetic (Late Triassic) of East Greenland has held an important place in understanding the timing of the earliest radiation of the group. Reanalysis of the type specimen using high-resolution computed tomography (CT) has revealed new details, such as the presence of the dentary condyle of the mammalian jaw hinge and the postdentary trough for mandibular attachment of the middle ear—a transitional condition of the predecessors to crown Mammalia. Our tests of competing phylogenetic hypotheses with these new data show that Late Triassic haramiyids are a separate clade from multituberculate mammals and are excluded from the Mammalia. Consequently, hypotheses of a Late Triassic diversification of the Mammalia that depend on multituberculate affinities of haramiyidans are rejected. Scanning electron microscopy study of tooth-wear facets and kinematic functional simulation of occlusion with virtual 3D models from CT scans confirm that Haramiyavia had a major orthal occlusion with the tallest lingual cusp of the lower molars occluding into the lingual embrasure of the upper molars, followed by a short palinal movement along the cusp rows alternating between upper and lower molars. This movement differs from the minimal orthal but extensive palinal occlusal movement of multituberculate mammals, which previously were regarded as relatives of haramiyidans. The disparity of tooth morphology and the diversity of dental functions of haramiyids and their contemporary mammaliaforms suggest that dietary diversification is a major factor in the earliest mammaliaform evolution. PMID:26630008

One of the five largest mass extinctions of the past 600million years occurred at the boundary of the Triassic and Jurassic periods, 201.6million years ago. The loss of marine biodiversity at the time has been linked to extreme greenhouse warming, triggered by the release of carbon dioxide from flood basalt volcanism in the central Atlantic Ocean. In contrast, the biotic turnover in terrestrial ecosystems is not well understood, and cannot be readily reconciled with the effects of massive volcanism. Here we present pollen, spore and geochemical analyses across the Triassic/Jurassic boundary from three drill cores from Germany and Sweden. We show that gymnosperm forests in northwest Europe were transiently replaced by fern and fern-associated vegetation, a pioneer assemblage commonly found in disturbed ecosystems. The Triassic/Jurassic boundary is also marked by an enrichment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which, in the absence of charcoal peaks, we interpret as an indication of incomplete combustion of organic matter by ascending flood basalt lava. We conclude that the terrestrial vegetation shift is so severe and wide ranging that it is unlikely to have been triggered by greenhouse warming alone. Instead, we suggest that the release of pollutants such as sulphur dioxide and toxic compounds such as the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons may have contributed to the extinction.

As one of the earliest-known mammaliaforms, Haramiyavia clemmenseni from the Rhaetic (Late Triassic) of East Greenland has held an important place in understanding the timing of the earliest radiation of the group. Reanalysis of the type specimen using high-resolution computed tomography (CT) has revealed new details, such as the presence of the dentary condyle of the mammalian jaw hinge and the postdentary trough for mandibular attachment of the middle ear-a transitional condition of the predecessors to crown Mammalia. Our tests of competing phylogenetic hypotheses with these new data show that Late Triassic haramiyids are a separate clade from multituberculate mammals and are excluded from the Mammalia. Consequently, hypotheses of a Late Triassic diversification of the Mammalia that depend on multituberculate affinities of haramiyidans are rejected. Scanning electron microscopy study of tooth-wear facets and kinematic functional simulation of occlusion with virtual 3D models from CT scans confirm that Haramiyavia had a major orthal occlusion with the tallest lingual cusp of the lower molars occluding into the lingual embrasure of the upper molars, followed by a short palinal movement along the cusp rows alternating between upper and lower molars. This movement differs from the minimal orthal but extensive palinal occlusal movement of multituberculate mammals, which previously were regarded as relatives of haramiyidans. The disparity of tooth morphology and the diversity of dental functions of haramiyids and their contemporary mammaliaforms suggest that dietary diversification is a major factor in the earliest mammaliaform evolution. PMID:26630008

Global biogeochemical processes are being perturbed by human activity, principally that which is associated with industrial activity and expansion of urban and agricultural complexes. Perturbations have manifested themselves at least since the beginning of the 19th Century, and include emissions of CO{sub 2} and other pollutants from fossil fuel combustion, agricultural emissions of reactive nitrogen, and direct disruption of ecosystem function through land conversion. These perturbations yield local impacts, but there are also global consequences that are the sum of local-scale influences. Several approaches to understanding the global-scale implications of chemical perturbations to the Earth system are discussed. The lifetime of anthropogenic CO{sub 2} in the atmosphere is an important concept for understanding the current and future commitment to an altered atmospheric heat budget. The importance of the terrestrial biogeochemistry relative to the lifetime of excess CO{sub 2} is demonstrated using dynamic, aggregated models of the global carbon cycle.

Under healthy conditions, the normal cardiac (sinus) interbeat interval fluctuates in a complex manner. Quantitative analysis using techniques adapted from statistical physics reveals the presence of long-range power-law correlations extending over thousands of heartbeats. This scale-invariant (fractal) behavior suggests that the regulatory system generating these fluctuations is operating far from equilibrium. In contrast, we find that for subjects at high risk of sudden death (e.g. congestive heart failure patients) these long-range correlations break down. Application of fractal scaling analysis and related techniques provides new approaches to assessing cardiac risk and forecasting sudden cardiac death, as well as motivating development of novel physiological models of systems that appear to be ``hetero-dynamic'' rather than ``homeo-static.''

Under healthy conditions, the normal cardiac (sinus) interbeat interval fluctuates in a complex manner. Quantitative analysis using techniques adapted from statistical physics reveals the presence of long-range power-law correlations extending over thousands of heartbeats. This scale-invariant (fractal) behavior suggests that the regulatory system generating these fluctuations is operating far from equilibrium. In contrast, we find that for subjects at high risk of sudden death (e.g. congestive heart failure patients) these long-range correlations break down. Application of fractal scaling analysis and related techniques provides new approaches to assessing cardiac risk and forecasting sudden cardiac death, as well as motivating development of novel physiological models of systems that appear to be {open_quote}{open_quote}hetero-dynamic{close_quote}{close_quote} rather than {open_quote}{open_quote}homeo-static.{close_quote}{close_quote} {copyright} {ital 1996 American Institute of Physics.}

The western Guizhou and eastern Yunnan area of southwest China commands a unique and significant position globally in the study of Permian-Triassic boundary (PTB) events as it contains well and continuously exposed PTB sections of marine, non-marine and marginal-marine origin in the same area. By using a range of high-resolution stratigraphic methods including biostratigraphy, eventostratigraphy, chronostratigraphy and chemostratigraphy, not only are the non-marine PTB sections correlated with their marine counterparts in the study area with high-resolution, the non-marine PTB sections of the study area can also be aligned with the PTB Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) at Meishan in eastern China. Plant megafossils ("megaplants") in the study area indicate a major loss in abundance and diversity across the PTB, and no coal beds and/or seams have been found in the non-marine Lower Triassic although they are very common in the non-marine Upper Permian. The megaplants, however, did not disappear consistently across the whole area, with some elements of the Late Permian Cathaysian Gigantopteris flora surviving the PTB mass extinction and locally even extending up to the Lower Triassic. Palynomorphs exhibit a similar temporal pattern characterized by a protracted stepwise decrease from fern-dominated spores in the Late Permian to pteridosperm and gymnosperm-dominated pollen in the Early Triassic, which was however punctuated by an accelerated loss in both abundance and diversity across the PTB. Contemporaneous with the PTB crisis in the study area was the peculiar prevalence and dominance of some fungi and/or algae species. The temporal patterns of megaplants and palynomorphs across the PTB in the study area are consistent with the regional trends of plant changes in South China, which also show a long-term decrease in species diversity from the Late Permian Wuchiapingian through the Changhsingian to the earliest Triassic, with about 48% and 77% losses of

This study is based on top-to-bottom examination of samples from 146 wells from the Florida-Bahama platform. Following Triassic graben formation, three different structural configurations develop through time. In the Late Jurassic-Coahuilan, a northwestern and southeastern sedimentary province were separated by the Sarasota arch, located on the west Florida shelf. Modern basin configurations, which began to appear in the Comanchean, were modified by tectonics in Cuba in the early Gulfian. From the Late Jurassic through the Comanchean, the continental margin was occupied by a carbonate complex that restricted marine circulation in some areas In the southeast, this barrier caused the deposition of lagoonal carbonates and anhydrites; in the north, clastics were deposited. Carbonate-evaporite deposition in the south ended at the close of the Comanchean and was followed by the deposition of chalk and chalky limestone in the Gulfian. During this epoch, the rapid subsidence of the Blake Plateau basin to bathal depths and the collapse of the Florida straits were associated with tectonic activity in northern Cuba. By the middle Gulfian, the Rebecca Shoal barrier reef had appeared on the upthrown northern side of the straits. This barrier reef expanded to encircle the florida peninsula completely, at which time the Cedar Keys (Paleocene) lagoonal dolomite-anhydrite deposition was initiated.

This study is based on top-to-bottom examination of samples from 146 wells from the Florida-Bahama platform. Following Triassic graben formation, three different structural configurations develop through time. In the Late Jurassic-Coahuilan, a northwestern and southeastern sedimentary province were separated by the Sarasota arch, located on the west Florida shelf. Modern basin configurations, which began to appear in the Comanchean, were modified by tectonics in Cuba in the early Gulfian. From the Late Jurassic through the Comanchean, the continental margin was occupied by a carbonate complex that restricted marine circulation in some areas. In the southeast, this barrier caused the deposition of lagoonal carbonates and anhydrites; in the north, clastics were deposited. Carbonate-evaporite deposition in the south ended at the close of the Comanchean and was followed by the deposition of chalk and chalky limestone in the Gulfian. During this epoch, the rapid subsidence of the Blake Plateau basin to bathal depths and the collapse of the Florida straits were associated with tectonic activity in northern Cuba. By the middle Gulfian, the Rebecca Shoal barrier reef had appeared on the upthrown northern side of the straits. This barrier reef expanded to encircle the Florida peninsula completely, at which time the Cedar Keys (Paleocene) lagoonal dolomite-anhydrite deposition was initiated.

A small buried oceanic basin named the Obsky paleo-ocean has been found in West Siberia. It developed from 235 to 218 m.y. during the Triassic by rift propagation and seafloor spreading inside the west Siberian region of the continent. During the postspreading period the Obsky paleo-ocean did not collapse but instead was covered intact by a layer of sediments with a thickness of up to 15 km. This conclusion is based on detailed interpretation of geophysical and geological data. Striped magnetic anomalies marking the paleo-ocean spreading have been separated from the total magnetic field. They have been dated and interpreted within the framework of the Vine-Matthews concept. Seismic and gravitational data have permitted delineation of the Obsky paleo-ocean depression and contouring of the basement relief within its bounds. Investigation of the Obsky paleo-ocean basalts by means of deep boreholes has indicated that they are chemically similar to oceanic tholeiites and has also confirmed the presence of strong residual magnetism in them. Spreading of the Obsky paleo-ocean was a stage in the initial disintegration of Pangea at the Paleozoic-Mesozoic boundary. The presence of a north trending buried spreading center along the axial zone of West Siberia accounts for many features of the Mesozoic-Cenozoic history of the region and its present-day structure.

Light storage on the minute scale is an important capability for future scalable quantum information networks spanning intercontinental distances. We employ an ultracold atomic gas confined in a one-dimensional optical lattice for long-term light storage. The differential ac Stark shift of the ground-level microwave transition used for storage is reduced to a sub-Hz level by the application of a magic-valued magnetic field. The 1/e lifetime for storage of coherent states of light is prolonged up to 16 s by a microwave dynamic decoupling protocol.

The High Atlas of Morocco is an aborted rift developed during the Triassic-Jurassic and moderately inverted during the Cenozoic. The Marrakech High Atlas, with large exposures of basement and Triassic early syn-rift deposits, is ideal to investigate the geometries of the deepest parts of a rift, constituting a good analogue for pre-salt domains. It allows unraveling geometries and kinematics of the extensional and compressional structures and the influence that they exert over one another. A detailed structural study of the main Triassic basins and basin-margin faults of the Marrakech High Atlas shows that only a few rift faults were reactivated during the Cenozoic compressional stage in contrast to previous interpretations, and emphasizes that fault reactivation cannot be taken for granted in inverted rift systems. Preserved extensional features demonstrate a dominant dip-slip opening kinematics with strike-slip playing a minor role, at variance to models proposing a major strike-slip component along the main basin-bounding faults, including faults belonging to the Tizi n'Test fault zone. A new Middle Triassic paleogeographic reconstruction shows that the Marrakech High Atlas was a narrow and segmented orthogonal rift (sub-perpendicular to the main regional extension direction which was ~ NW-SE), in contrast to the central and eastern segments of the Atlas rift which developed obliquely. This difference in orientation is attributed to the indented Ouzellarh Precambrian salient, part of the West African Craton, which deflected the general rift trend in the area evidencing the major role of inherited lithospheric anisotropies in rift direction and evolution. As for the Cenozoic inversion, total orogenic shortening is moderate (~ 16%) and appears accommodated by basement-involved large-scale folding, and by newly formed shortcut and by-pass thrusting, with rare left-lateral strike-slip indicators. Triassic faults commonly acted as buttresses.

We predict the evolution of galaxy scaling relationships from cosmological, hydrodynamical simulations, that reproduce the scaling relations of present-day galaxies. Although we do not assume co-evolution between galaxies and black holes a priori, we are able to reproduce the black hole mass-velocity dispersion relation. This relation does not evolve, and black holes actually grow along the relation from significantly less massive seeds than have previously been used. AGN feedback does not very much affect the chemical evolution of our galaxies. In our predictions, the stellar mass-metallicity relation does not change its shape, but the metallicity significantly increases from z ˜ 2 to z ˜ 1, while the gas-phase mass-metallicity relation does change shape, having a steeper slope at higher redshifts (z ≲ 3). Furthermore, AGN feedback is required to reproduce observations of the most massive galaxies at z ≲ 1, specifically their positions on the star formation main sequence and galaxy mass-size relation.

A technique for high resolution Thomson scattering is discussed. By coupling a spectrograph to a streak camera with high sensitivity detectors, time and spectrally resolved scattered signals are obtained. Time resolutions down to 20 psec have been achieved, with the primary limitation on this figure coming from temporal dispersion in the spectrograph. The results of some laser plasma interaction experiments designed to study plasma instabilities are presented. PMID:20372444

The mass extinctions near the Permian-Triassic boundary (PTB) resulted in the greatest dying of life on Earth. The cause of this catastrophe remains enigmatic. High-resolution chronology is crucial to understanding the recorded pattern of biotic evolution and possible causes for the extinctions. Magnetic susceptibility (MS) data from Shangsi, South China shows evidence for astronomical forcing through the PTB interval, with strong 405-kyr cycling. This allows development of an astrochronology for the PTB interval based on the 405-kyr orbital eccentricity metronome that has been proposed for the Mesozoic timescale. Radioisotope dating combined with the 405-kyr tuned MS series from Shangsi shows that the 405-kyr-cycle predominates throughout the PTB interval. In the Permian segment, ~100-kyr cyclicity dominates, and the 100-kyr-scale MS maxima correlate with high-amplitude precession-scale MS variations. Minima in the ~1.5-Myr, 405-kyr and ~100-kyr cycles converge at 252.6 Ma, approximately 200 kyr before the onset of the main mass extinction near the PTB. In the Triassic aftermath, the recorded astronomical signal is different, with predominant 405-kyr cycles and loss of 100 kyr cyclicity, and appearance of ~33 kyr (obliquity scale) cyclicity; 100-kyr cyclicity strengthens again 2 Myr later. This pattern indicates a change in the response of the depositional environment (or magnetic susceptibility) to astronomical forcing before and after the mass extinction interval. The astrochronology interpolates the timescale between the radioisotopically determined absolute dates; this facilitates estimation of ages for specific events in the PTB crisis, including magnetic reversals, biozone boundaries, and the mass extinctions. An estimated ~700 kyr duration for the Mass Extinction Interval (MEI) at Shangsi based on the 405-kyr tuning is supported by eccentricity-tuned estimates of three other sections in China (Meishan, Huangzhishan, and Heping), and two Alpine sections

Complex time series are widespread in physics and physiology. Multifractal analysis provides a tool to study the scaling dynamics of such time series. However, the temporal evolution of scaling dynamics has been ignored by traditional tools such as the multifractal spectrum. We present scaling maps that add the time dimension to the study of scaling dynamics. This is particularly important in cases in which the dynamics of the underlying processes change in time or in applications that necessitate real-time detection of scaling dynamics. In addition, we present a methodology for automatic clustering of existing scaling regimes in a signal. We demonstrate the methodology on time-evolving correlated and uncorrelated noise and the output of a physiological control system (i.e., cardiac interbeat intervals) in healthy and pathological states. PMID:27575136

We use agent-based models to study the competition among investors who use trading strategies with different amount of information and with different timescales. We find that mixing agents that trade on the same timescale but with different amount of information has a stabilizing impact on the large and extreme fluctuations of the market. Traders with the most information are found to be more likely to arbitrage traders who use less information in the decision making. On the other hand, introducing investors who act on two different timescales has a destabilizing effect on the large and extreme price movements, increasing the volatility of the market. Closeness in timescale used in the decision making is found to facilitate the creation of local trends. The larger the overlap in commonly shared information the more the traders in a mixed system with different timescales are found to profit from the presence of traders acting at another timescale than themselves.

Complex time series are widespread in physics and physiology. Multifractal analysis provides a tool to study the scaling dynamics of such time series. However, the temporal evolution of scaling dynamics has been ignored by traditional tools such as the multifractal spectrum. We present scaling maps that add the time dimension to the study of scaling dynamics. This is particularly important in cases in which the dynamics of the underlying processes change in time or in applications that necessitate real-time detection of scaling dynamics. In addition, we present a methodology for automatic clustering of existing scaling regimes in a signal. We demonstrate the methodology on time-evolving correlated and uncorrelated noise and the output of a physiological control system (i.e., cardiac interbeat intervals) in healthy and pathological states.

Structure in the geologic timescale reflects a partly paleontological origin. As a result, ages of Cenozoic and Mesozoic stage boundaries exhibit a weak 28-Myr periodicity that is similar to the strong 26-Myr periodicity detected in mass extinctions of marine life by Raup and Sepkoski. Radiometric dating errors in the geologic timescale, to which the mass extinctions are stratigraphically tied, do not necessarily lessen the likelihood of a significant periodicity in mass extinctions, but do spread the acceptable values of the period over the range 25-27 Myr for the Harland et al. timescale or 25-30 Myr for the DNAG timescale. If the Odin timescale is adopted, acceptable periods fall between 24 and 33 Myr, but are not robust against dating errors. Some indirect evidence from independently-dated flood-basalt volcanic horizons tends to favor the Odin timescale.

The Northeast section of Brazil, called the Nordeste, experiences flood and drought regimes as the norm rather than the exception. This region receives its principal dose of precipitation during March--April, subsequent to regions to the west and north due to its proximity to the southern Atlantic subtropical high. A weakening of this anticyclone and strengthening of its counterpart in the northern Atlantic during this season results in the farthest southward penetration of the ITCZ and the Nordeste rainy season. Fluctuations in the large-scale circulation of the atmosphere, such as ENSO, modulate the track of the ITCZ causing the interannual drought or flood conditions that plague this region. Empirical studies have shown that Nordeste rainfall is related to the sea-surface temperature (SST) in the tropical Atlantic Ocean. 16 refs., 4 figs.

Communication in the nervous system occurs by spikes: the timing precision with which spikes are fired is a fundamental limit on neural information processing. In sensory systems, spike-timing precision is constrained by first-order neurons. We found that spike-timing precision of trigeminal primary afferents in rats and mice is limited both by stimulus speed and by electrophysiological sampling rate. High-speed video of behaving mice revealed whisker velocities of at least 17,000°/s, so we delivered an ultrafast “ping” (>50,000°/s) to single whiskers and sampled primary afferent activity at 500 kHz. Median spike jitter was 17.4 μs; 29% of neurons had spike jitter < 10 μs. These results indicate that the input stage of the trigeminal pathway has extraordinary spike-timing precision and very high potential information capacity. This timing precision ranks among the highest in biology. PMID:25878266

The timing and nature of biotic recovery from the devastating end-Permian mass extinction (252 Ma) are much debated. New studies in South China suggest that complex marine ecosystems did not become re-established until the middle–late Anisian (Middle Triassic), much later than had been proposed by some. The recently discovered exceptionally preserved Luoping biota from the Anisian Stage of the Middle Triassic, Yunnan Province and southwest China shows this final stage of community assembly on the continental shelf. The fossil assemblage is a mixture of marine animals, including abundant lightly sclerotized arthropods, associated with fishes, marine reptiles, bivalves, gastropods, belemnoids, ammonoids, echinoderms, brachiopods, conodonts and foraminifers, as well as plants and rare arthropods from nearby land. In some ways, the Luoping biota rebuilt the framework of the pre-extinction latest Permian marine ecosystem, but it differed too in profound ways. New trophic levels were introduced, most notably among top predators in the form of the diverse marine reptiles that had no evident analogues in the Late Permian. The Luoping biota is one of the most diverse Triassic marine fossil Lagerstätten in the world, providing a new and early window on recovery and radiation of Triassic marine ecosystems some 10 Myr after the end-Permian mass extinction. PMID:21183583

The Triassic-Jurassic boundary marks a global faunal turnover event that is generally considered as the third largest of five major biological crises in the Phanerozoic geological record of Earth. Determining the controlling factors of this event and their relative contributions to the biotic turnover associated with it is on-going globally. The Upper Triassic and Lower Jurassic rock record of southern Africa presents a unique opportunity for better constraining how and why the biosphere was affected at this time not only because the succession is richly fossiliferous, but also because it contains important palaeoenvironmental clues. Using mainly sedimentary geochemical proxies (i.e., major, trace and rare earth elements), our study is the first quantitative assessment of the palaeoclimatic conditions during the deposition of the Elliot Formation, a continental red bed succession that straddles the Triassic-Jurassic boundary in southern Africa. Employing clay mineralogy as well as the indices of chemical alteration and compositional variability, our results confirm earlier qualitative sedimentological studies and indicate that the deposition of the Upper Triassic and Lower Jurassic Elliot Formation occurred under increasingly dry environmental conditions that inhibited chemical weathering in this southern part of Pangea. Moreover, the study questions the universal validity of those studies that suggest a sudden increase in humidity for the Lower Jurassic record and supports predictions of long-term global warming after continental flood basalt emplacement.

Walkeria maleriensis (n. g., n. sp.) from the Late Triassic Maleri Formation of the Godavari Valley of India is the earliest known dinosaur from Asia. It is a small podokesaurid theropod, very similar to Procompsognathus of Germany, Coelophysis of North America, and Syntarsus from Zimbabwe and North America. The podokesaurs are of particular interest to students of organic evolution because they are the earliest known theropods from which Archaeopteryx, the oldest known fossil bird, was probably evolved. Traditionally, India has been regarded as a part of Gondwana. It is generally believed that Gondwana remained an integral geographic unit throughout the Triassic. If this is so, a strong faunal correlation between India and other Gondwana continents should be expected in Late Triassictime. Contrary to this, the Maleri fauna is overwhelmingly "northern". Walkeria occurs in association with metoposaurs, parasuchids, protorosaurs, aetosaurs, rhynchosaurs, and traversodonts. Most of these taxa have been identified in the Dockum fauna of North America, indicating a close paleontologic link between India and Laurasia. Possibly the route of faunal migration between India and North America during the Late Triassic was via northern Africa.

We explore the dynamics of modified version of a standard fishery model (Gordon-Schafer-Munro), with additive and multiplicative noise, under a quota-based harvest. A harvest quota induces an effective strong Allee effect (a positive unstable steady state population level, below which populations die out), with expected survival time following generalized Ornstein-Uhlenbeck dynamics. In particular, for additive noise, the expected survival time is exponential in s3/σ2, where s is the difference between stable and unstable steady state populations and σ the noise level. Thus survival time depends sensitively upon harvest quota (which determines steady state population), perhaps a warning to avoid future collapses such as that of the Atlantic cod fishery.

The collection of fossil plants sampled by geologists from VNIGRI at the end of the 20th century from Triassic continental sections drilled by many wells and cropping out in several natural localities and stored at the Museum of Petroleum Geology and Paleontology of the same institute was critically revised. The use of the epidermal method for the study of plant remains with consideration of recent publications dedicated to continental sections of Central Europe made it possible to substantially broaden the taxonomic composition of the Triassic flora and first specify the composition of its pteridosperm representatives. Unlike the Triassic floras of Western Europe, the pteridosperms the Pechora region appeared to be relatively diverse. They number 37 species of 11 genera, which are confined to the upper part of the Triassic sequence: Anguran and Naryan-Mar formations and their analogs. The Middle Triassic, mainly, Ladinian, age of these formations is reliably substantiated both by paleontological (vertebrate and palynological) data and by results of the comparative analysis of the Anguran-Naryan-Mar taphofloras and coeval European type floras dated back to the Anisian-Ladinian by marine faunal remains. The stratigraphic significance of pteridospermous plant remains becomes undoubted for continental sections of the Timan-Pechora basin, while the genera Scytophyllum, Kalantarium, and Kirjamkenia may be considered with respect to their diversity and abundance as representing orthostratigraphic taxa.

In order to efficiently track charged particles over long times, most tracking codes use either analytic charge distributions or particle-in-cell (PIC) methods based on fast Fourier transforms (FFTs). While useful for theoretical studies, analytic distribution models do not allow accurate simulation of real machines. PIC calculations can utilize realistic space charge distributions, but these methods suffer from the presence of discretization errors. We examine the situation for particle tracking with space charge over long times, and consider possible ideas to improve the accuracy of such calculations.

Single particle tracking of mRNA molecules and lipid granules in living cells shows that the time averaged mean squared displacement delta2[over ] of individual particles remains a random variable while indicating that the particle motion is subdiffusive. We investigate this type of ergodicity breaking within the continuous time random walk model and show that delta2[over ] differs from the corresponding ensemble average. In particular we derive the distribution for the fluctuations of the random variable delta2[over ]. Similarly we quantify the response to a constant external field, revealing a generalization of the Einstein relation. Consequences for the interpretation of single molecule tracking data are discussed. PMID:18764430

We study photoionization of argon atoms excited by attosecond pulses using an interferometric measurement technique. We measure the difference in time delays between electrons emitted from the 3s{sup 2} and from the 3p{sup 6} shell, at different excitation energies ranging from 32 to 42 eV. The determination of photoemission time delays requires taking into account the measurement process, involving the interaction with a probing infrared field. This contribution can be estimated using a universal formula and is found to account for a substantial fraction of the measured delay.

Although continents were coalesced into the single landmass Pangea, Late Triassic terrestrial tetrapod assemblages are surprisingly provincial. In eastern North America, we show that assemblages dominated by traversodont cynodonts are restricted to a humid 6° equatorial swath that persisted for over 20 million years characterized by “semiprecessional” (approximately 10,000-y) climatic fluctuations reflected in stable carbon isotopes and sedimentary facies in lacustrine strata. More arid regions from 5–20°N preserve procolophonid-dominated faunal assemblages associated with a much stronger expression of approximately 20,000-y climatic cycles. In the absence of geographic barriers, we hypothesize that these variations in the climatic expression of astronomical forcing produced latitudinal climatic zones that sorted terrestrial vertebrate taxa, perhaps by excretory physiology, into distinct biogeographic provinces tracking latitude, not geographic position, as the proto-North American plate translated northward. Although the early Mesozoic is usually assumed to be characterized by globally distributed land animal communities due to of a lack of geographic barriers, strong provinciality was actually the norm, and nearly global communities were present only after times of massive ecological disruptions. PMID:21571639

Describes study conducted with U.S. Marine Corps enlisted personnel to measure response time to computer-administered questionnaire items, and to evaluate how measurement of response time might be useful in various research areas. Topics addressed include mood states; the occurrence of straight lining; and experimental effects of sleep loss and…

Over the past decades, the IAU has repeatedly attempted to correct its definition of the basic fundamental argument used in the emphemerides. Finally, they have defined a time system which is physically possible, according to the accepted standard theory of gravitation.

We present an overview of different methods for decomposing a multichannel spontaneous electroencephalogram (EEG) into sets of temporal patterns and topographic distributions. All of the methods presented here consider the scalp electric field as the basic analysis entity in space. In time, the resolution of the methods is between milliseconds (time-domain analysis), subseconds (time- and frequency-domain analysis) and seconds (frequency-domain analysis). For any of these methods, we show that large parts of the data can be explained by a small number of topographic distributions. Physically, this implies that the brain regions that generated one of those topographies must have been active with a common phase. If several brain regions are producing EEG signals at the same time and frequency, they have a strong tendency to do this in a synchronized mode. This view is illustrated by several examples (including combined EEG and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)) and a selective review of the literature. The findings are discussed in terms of short-lasting binding between different brain regions through synchronized oscillations, which could constitute a mechanism to form transient, functional neurocognitive networks. PMID:16087445

Stromatolites are laminated sedimentary structures that are commonly thought to be created by cyanobacteria, either through the trapping and binding of sediment, or through metabolically-induced precipitation. However, stromatolite formation is poorly understood. In general, stromatolite abundance was higher in the Proterozoic than the Phanerozoic, but notable increases in stromatolite abundance occur in association with Phanerozoic mass extinction events. Here, we focus on stromatolites from the latest Triassic Cotham Marble (United Kingdom) that are associated with the extinction interval. The end-Triassic mass extinction is coincident with large-scale volcanism in the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) and the associated breakup of Pangea. Some hypothesize that CAMP-associated increases in atmospheric CO2 led to a rise in global temperatures and ocean acidification that caused or enhanced the extinction. In order to quantify the role of climate change with respect to the end-Triassic mass extinction, we applied the carbonate "clumped" isotope paleothermometer to the well-preserved Cotham Marble stromatolites. The stromatolites were deposited in the shallow Tethys Sea, and today occur in several localities across the southwestern UK. The stromatolites alternate on the cm scale between laminated and dendrolitic microstructures and each was microdrilled for clumped isotope analysis. The two microstructures display different temperatures of formation, where the dendrolitic portions apparently grew under cooler conditions than laminated layers, and younger layers grew in cooler conditions than older layers. Our results suggest that temperature fluctuated and potentially trended towards amelioration of the warm temperatures during the deposition of the Cotham Marble.

The timescales calculus is a key emerging area of mathematics due to its potential use in a wide variety of multidisciplinary applications. We extend this calculus to approximate dynamic programming (ADP). The core backward induction algorithm of dynamic programming is extended from its traditional discrete case to all isolated timescales. Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equations, the solution of which is the fundamental problem in the field of dynamic programming, are motivated and proven on timescales. By drawing together the calculus of timescales and the applied area of stochastic control via ADP, we have connected two major fields of research. PMID:18632378

Late Permian and early Triassic sediments from Boreal regions are studied using palynological and organic geochemical tools. We present preliminary results from two sites: a Norwegian site which is represented by a 100-m long borehole core and outcrops from Deltadalen on Spitsbergen, and a Russian site which is represented by outcrops and short cores collected near Norilsk in northern Siberia. The main goals of the project are to improve the stratigraphy and to study the environmental changes at high resolution. There is a growing scientific consensus that end Permian biotic crisis was linked to the Siberian Traps Large Igneous Province (LIP) event. However, direct evidence for a stratigraphic correlation of the marine and terrestrial extinction events, with the volcanic successions in the Siberian basin, is rather limited. The Permian-Triassic boundary successions in the Arctic are crucial for direct correlation eastwards to the Siberian Traps. The magnitude and timing of a carbon isotope excursion near the Permian-Triassic boundary is an important stratigraphical tool that may help to unravel the sequence of the events happening during this important period. Preliminary results from the Deltadalen core near the base of the Vikinghøgda Formation show shifts in δ13C from -24.5 to -32.7‰ in the interval expected to span the Permian/Triassic boundary. New Rock-Eval pyrolysis data will shed further light on the origin of the organic matter (e.g. marine versus terrestrial) and may help to understand how much of the δ13C signal can be explained by changes in organic matter source and how much may be attributed to a global change in the carbon isotope signature. Furthermore, compound specific isotope analysis will be done on terrestrial derived lipids (long chain n-alkanes) to reconstruct changes in atmospheric carbon isotopes. In addition to chemostratigraphy, the palynological record will be used for biostratigraphical studies at both Deltadalen and Norilsk

, and lower Rhaetian) continental strata. The apparent scarcity of prosauropods in Upper Triassic strata of the Newark Supergroup is interpreted as an artifact of ecological partitioning, created by the habitat range and dietary preferences of phytosaurs and by the preservational biases at that time within the lithofacies of the Newark Supergroup basins.

A major (but little noted) divergence of opinion has developed among climate scientists over the orbital-scale periodicity and phasing of tropical monsoon variations. Kutzbach (1981. Monsoon climate of the early Holocene: climate experiment with Earth's orbital parameters for 9000 years ago. Science 214, 59-61) proposed that monsoons are driven by northern summer insolation at the precession period, but Clemens and Prell (1990. Late Pleistocene variability of Arabian Sea summer monsoon winds and continental aridity: eolian records from the lithogenic component of deep-sea sediments. Paleoceanography 5, 109-145; 2003. A 350,000-year summer-monsoon multi-proxy stack from the Owen Ridge, Northern Arabian Sea. Marine Geology 201, 35-51) inferred a more complicated response tied to latent heat transfer from the Southern Hemisphere. Because tropical monsoons affect climate over a vast area, resolving this divergence is an important task for the climate community. The purpose of this note is to highlight definitive evidence from high-resolution dating of speleothem calcite that provides unambiguous support for the Kutzbach hypothesis.

Much of the current interest in the field of ultrafast science focuses on the observation of attosecond dynamics of electronic wavepackets. These experiments typically require attosecond pulses either for pumping or probing such dynamics and/or are limited to observing electronic states embedded in the ionization continuum of atoms. Here, we present numerical evidence---based on solutions of the time-dependent Schr"odinger equation for a 1-dimensional model atom---that a pump--probe scheme with two few-cycle femtosecond laser pulses provides interferometric access to sub-femtosecond electron wavepacket dynamics. Both continuum- and bound-state electronic wavepacket interference can be simultaneously observed by recording and analyzing time-delay dependent interferences in the ATI spectrum of an atom. Both dipole-allowed and forbidden electronic transition information can be extracted from the data, making this approach a versatile and comprehensive spectroscopic method for probing the bound electronic level structure of an atom.

Concentration times in small and medium-sized watersheds (~100-1000 km2) are commonly less than 24 hours. Flood-forecasting models then require data at sub-daily timescales, but time-series of input and runoff data with sufficient lengths are often only available at the daily timescale, especially in developing countries. This has led to a search for time-scale relationships to infer parameter values at the timescales where they are needed from the timescales where they are available. In this study, time-scale dependencies in the HBV-light conceptual hydrological model were assessed within the generalized likelihood uncertainty estimation (GLUE) approach. It was hypothesised that the existence of such dependencies is a result of the numerical method or time-stepping scheme used in the models rather than a real time-scale-data dependence. Parameter values inferred showed a clear dependence on timescale when the explicit Euler method was used for modelling at the same time steps as the timescale of the input data (1 to 24 h). However, the dependence almost fully disappeared when the explicit Euler method was used for modelling in 1-hour time steps internally irrespectively of the timescale of the input data. In other words, it was found that when an adequate time-stepping scheme was implemented, parameter sets inferred at one timescale (e.g., daily) could be used directly for runoff simulations at other timescales (e.g., 3 h or 6 h) without any timescaling and this approach only resulted in a small (if any) model performance decrease, in terms of Nash-Sutcliffe and volume-error efficiencies. The overall results of this study indicated that as soon as sub-daily driving data can be secured, flood forecasting in watersheds with sub-daily concentration times is possible with model parameter values inferred from long time series of daily data, as long as an appropriate numerical method is used.

Ultrafast THz radiation has important applications in materials science studies, such as characterizing transport properties, studying the vibrational response of materials, and in recent years, controlling materials and elucidating their response in intense electromagnetic fields. THz fields can be generated in a lab setting using various plasma-based techniques. This study seeks to examine the interaction of two plasmas in order to better understand the fundamental physics associated with femtosecond filamentation processes and to achieve more efficient THz generation in a lab setting. The intensity of fluorescence in the region of overlap was measured as a function of polarization, power, and relative time delay of the two plasma-generating laser beams. Results of time dependent intensity studies indicate strikingly similar behaviors across polarizations and power levels; a sudden intensity spike was observed at time-zero, followed by a secondary maxima and subsequent decay to the initial plasma intensity. Dependence of the intensity on the power through either beam arm was also observed. Spectral studies of the enhanced emission were also carried out. Although this physical phenomenon is still not fully understood, future studies, including further spectral analysis of the fluorescence overlap, could yield new insight into the ultrafast processes occurring at the intersection of femtosecond filaments, and would provide a better understanding of the mechanisms for enhanced THz production.

The proper simulation of the annular mode timescale may be regarded as an important benchmark for climate models. Previous research demonstrated that this timescale is systematically overestimated by climate models. As suggested by the fluctuation-dissipation theorem, this may imply that climate models are overly sensitive to external forcings. Previous research also made it clear that calculating the AM timescale is a slowly converging process, necessitating relatively long time series and casting doubts on the usefulness of the historical reanalysis record to constrain climate models in terms of the annular mode timescale. Here, we use long control simulations with the coupled and uncoupled version of the GFDL climate model, CM2.1 and AM2.1, respectively, to study the effects of internal atmospheric variability and forcing from the lower boundary on the stability of the annular mode timescale. In particular, we ask whether a model's annular mode timescale and dynamical sensitivity can be constrained from the 50-year-long reanalysis record. We find that internal variability attaches large uncertainty to the annular mode timescale when diagnosed from decadal records. Even under the fixed forcing conditions of our long control run at least 100 years of data are required in order to keep the uncertainty in the annular mode timescale of the Northern Hemisphere to 10 %; over the Southern Hemisphere, the required length increases to 200 years. If nature's annular mode timescale over the Northern Hemisphere is similarly variable, there is no guarantee that the historical reanalysis record is a fully representative target for model evaluation. Over the Southern Hemisphere, however, the discrepancies between model and reanalysis are sufficiently large to conclude that the model is unable to reproduce the observed timescale structure correctly. The effects of ocean coupling lead to a considerable increase in timescale and uncertainty in timescale, effects which

The proper simulation of the annular mode timescale may be regarded as an important benchmark for climate models. Previous research demonstrated that this timescale is systematically overestimated by climate models. As suggested by the fluctuation-dissipation theorem, this may imply that climate models are overly sensitive to external forcings. Previous research also made it clear that calculating the AM timescale is a slowly converging process, necessitating relatively long time series and casting doubts on the usefulness of the historical reanalysis record to constrain climate models in terms of the annular mode timescale. Here, we use long control simulations with the coupled and uncoupled version of the GFDL climate model, CM2.1 and AM2.1, respectively, to study the effects of internal atmospheric variability and forcing from the lower boundary on the stability of the annular mode timescale. In particular, we ask whether a model's annular mode timescale and dynamical sensitivity can be constrained from the 50-year-long reanalysis record. We find that internal variability attaches large uncertainty to the annular mode timescale when diagnosed from decadal records. Even under the fixed forcing conditions of our long control run at least 100 years of data are required in order to keep the uncertainty in the annular mode timescale of the Northern Hemisphere to 10 %; over the Southern Hemisphere, the required length increases to 200 years. If nature's annular mode timescale over the Northern Hemisphere is similarly variable, there is no guarantee that the historical reanalysis record is a fully representative target for model evaluation. Over the Southern Hemisphere, however, the discrepancies between model and reanalysis are sufficiently large to conclude that the model is unable to reproduce the observed timescale structure correctly. The effects of ocean coupling lead to a considerable increase in timescale and uncertainty in timescale, effects which

The freeze-quenching technique is extremely useful for trapping meta-stable intermediates populated during fast chemical or biochemical reactions. The application of this technique, however, is limited by the long mixing time of conventional solution mixers and the slow freezing time of cryogenic fluids. To overcome these problems, we have designed and tested a novel microfluidic silicon mixer equipped with a new freeze-quenching device, with which reactions can be followed down to 50 microseconds. In the microfluidic silicon mixer, seven vertical pillars with 10 micrometer diameter are arranged perpendicular to the flow direction and in a staggered fashion in the 450 picoliter mixing chamber to enhance turbulent mixing. The mixed solution jet, with a cross-section of 10 micrometer by 100 micrometer, exits from the microfluidic silicon mixer with a linear flow velocity of 20 m/sec. It instantaneously freezes on one of two rotating copper wheels maintained at 77 K and is subsequently ground into an ultra-fine powder. The ultra-fine frozen powder exhibits excellent spectral quality, high packing factor and can be readily transferred between spectroscopic observation cells. The microfluidic mixer was tested by the reaction between azide and myoglobin at pH 5.0. It was found that complete mixing was achieved within the mixing dead-time of the mixer (20 microseconds) and the first observable point for this coupled device was determined to be 50 microseconds, which is approximately two orders of magnitude faster than commercially available instruments. Several new applications of this device in ultra-fast biological reactions will be presented. Acknowledgements: This work is done in collaboration with Dr. Denis Rousseau and is supported by the NIH Grants HL65465 to S.-R.Y. and GM67814 to D.L.R.

This paper presents an experimental and theoretical study of stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in laser produced plasma using a laser pump with a duration of 8--10 psec. The experiments were performed in a preformed plasma to minimize the flow velocity and have the same plasma conditions over a large range of laser intensities. The reflectivity was then compared to theoretical results over an intensity range of 10[sup 13]--2[times]10[sup 15] W/cm[sup 2]. A short pulse was used so that the SBS was in the temporally growing regime and saturation was not an issue.

We report on the first simultaneous observations of poleward and equatorward traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) during the same geomagnetic storm period on a global scale. While poleward propagating TIDs originate from the geomagnetic equator region, equatorward propagating TIDs are launched from the auroral regions. On a global scale, we use total electron content observations from the Global Navigation Satellite Systems to show that these TIDs existed over South American, African, and Asian sectors. The American and African sectors exhibited predominantly strong poleward TIDs, while the Asian sector recorded mostly equatorward TIDs which crossed the geomagnetic equator to either hemisphere on 9 March 2012. However, both poleward and equatorward TIDs are simultaneously present in all three sectors. Using a combination of ground-based magnetometer observations and available low-latitude radar (JULIA) data, we have established and confirmed that poleward TIDs of geomagnetic equator origin are due to ionospheric electrodynamics, specifically changes in E × B vertical drift after the storm onset.

The Mediterranean region is one of the most complexly deformed areas in the world and its tectonic evolution has been instrumental in the development of numerous fundamental geological principles and geodynamic concepts. Reconstructions of the Mediterranean region invariably demonstrated that the area had a complex paleogeography with ribbon continents or micro-plates and narrow, elongated ocean basins systems in Mesozoic time. A western and northern ocean basin system was genetically related to the Atlantic Ocean, opened in Jurassic time and is known as the Alpine Tethys Ocean. A southern and eastern basin system was genetically related to the Neotethys domain located between Gondwana and Eurasia and - in the Mediterranean realm - opened in Triassic to Jurassic times. Continental domains of variable size within and between these ocean systems rifted away from Eurasia or Africa. This mosaic of pieces of continental and oceanic lithosphere became consumed by a complex configuration of subduction zones that accommodated convergence between the African and Eurasian plates since middle Jurassic times. Since Oligocene time, the overriding plate above subduction zones throughout the Mediterranean region became extended, locally leading to formation of new ocean floor, as a result of roll-back of subducted slab segments, culminating in todays complex and strongly curved configuration of subduction zones and slab segments. An area such as the tectonically complex Mediterranean invites attempt to kinematic restoration, and various reconstructions are already available. However, by now such reconstructions are no more merely a translation of - frequently qualitative - geological data into a quantitative description of surface evolution: with the advent of 3-dimensional numerical modeling tools that can be kinematically driven by plate reconstructions, they become critical input for attempts to integrate surface evolution into mantle dynamics. An increasingly widely used

The depression of the horizontal magnetic field at Earth's equator for the largest imaginable magnetic storm has been estimated (Vasyliūnas, 2011a) as -Dst ~ 2500 nT, from the assumption that the total pressure in the magnetosphere (plasma plus magnetic field perturbation) is limited, in order of magnitude, by the minimum pressure of Earth's dipole field at the location of each flux tube. The obvious related question is how long it would take the solar wind to supply the energy content of this largest storm. The maximum rate of energy input from the solar wind to the magnetosphere can be evaluated on the basis either of magnetotail stress balance or of polar cap potential saturation, giving an estimate of the time required to build up the largest storm, which (for solar-wind and magnetospheric parameter values typical of observed superstorms) is roughly between ~2 and ~6 h.

I will show how the statistical models that are used to describe the performance of atomic clocks are derived from their internal design. These statistical models form the basis for timescales, which are used to define international timescales such as International Atomic Time and Coordinated Universal Time. These international timescales are realized by ensembles of clocks at national laboratories such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and I will describe how ensembles of atomic clocks are characterized and managed. PMID:22380071

I will show how the statistical models that are used to describe the performance of atomic clocks are derived from their internal design. These statistical models form the basis for timescales, which are used to define international timescales such as International Atomic Time and Coordinated Universal Time. These international timescales are realized by ensembles of clocks at national laboratories such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and I will describe how ensembles of atomic clocks are characterized and managed.

Bellerophon bittneri Newell and Kummel is an Early Triassic bellerophontacean from the Dinwoody Formation in the Wind River Mountains. The available type material consists of one fair, but incomplete, external mold, which resembles a Bellerophon but is actually a Retispira. After repeated search, additional specimens were found at one locality in the southern Wind River Range of Wyoming; Retispira bittneri is redescribed from this new material. Like other Triassic bellerophontaceans, there is nothing unusual about the species apart from occurrence in the Mesozoic; it is clearly congeneric with Permian Retispira from underlying rocks. -Authors

Global warming is widely regarded to have played a contributing role in numerous past biotic crises. Here, we show that the end-Permian mass extinction coincided with a rapid temperature rise to exceptionally high values in the Early Triassic that were inimical to life in equatorial latitudes and suppressed ecosystem recovery. This was manifested in the loss of calcareous algae, the near-absence of fish in equatorial Tethys, and the dominance of small taxa of invertebrates during the thermal maxima. High temperatures drove most Early Triassic plants and animals out of equatorial terrestrial ecosystems and probably were a major cause of the end-Smithian crisis.

Global warming is widely regarded to have played a contributing role in numerous past biotic crises. Here, we show that the end-Permian mass extinction coincided with a rapid temperature rise to exceptionally high values in the Early Triassic that were inimical to life in equatorial latitudes and suppressed ecosystem recovery. This was manifested in the loss of calcareous algae, the near-absence of fish in equatorial Tethys, and the dominance of small taxa of invertebrates during the thermal maxima. High temperatures drove most Early Triassic plants and animals out of equatorial terrestrial ecosystems and probably were a major cause of the end-Smithian crisis. PMID:23087244

Our experimental and theoretical studies of the bichromatic force (BF) have shown that its strength and velocity range are very much larger than those of the usual radiative force. Since the BF relies on stimulated effects, the role of spontaneous emission in laser cooling has come into question. We drive the 23 S -->33 P transition of He at λ = 389 nm with laser frequencies ωl =ωa +/- δ , where ωa is the atomic transition frequency and δ ~ 30 MHz. Thus the velocity range of the force is Δv ~ δ / 2 k = 6 m/s. Because of the large and nearly constant strength of the BF, F ~ ℏkδ / π , all atoms can reach the velocity limit in a time <= MΔv / F = π / 4ωr = 380 ns, where ωr is the atomic recoil frequency. In our experiment a beam of He atoms crosses perpendicular through the BF laser beams in 380 ns so the relatively long lifetime of the excited state (τ = 106 ns) allows one or at most two spontaneous emission events, despite Δv of many tens of recoils. We will present our initial measurements of the BF in this new domain. Supported by ONR and Dept. of Ed. GAANN.

Formal stratigraphic systems have been developed for the surface materials of the Moon, Mars, Mercury, and the Galilean satellite Ganymede. These systems are based on geologic mapping, which establishes relative ages of surfaces delineated by superposition, morphology, impact crater densities, and other relations and features. Referent units selected from the mapping determine time-stratigraphic bases and/or representative materials characteristic of events and periods for definition of chronologic units. Absolute ages of these units in some cases can be estimated using crater size-frequency data. For the Moon, the chronologic units and cratering record are calibrated by radiometric ages measured from samples collected from the lunar surface. Model ages for other cratered planetary surfaces are constructed primarily by estimating cratering rates relative to that of the Moon. Other cratered bodies with estimated surface ages include Venus and the Galilean satellites of Jupiter. New global geologic mapping and crater dating studies of Mars are resulting in more accurate and detailed reconstructions of its geologic history.

Weber's law is the canonical scale-invariance law in psychology: when the intensities of 2 stimuli are scaled by any value k, the just-noticeable-difference between them also scales by k. A diffusion model that approximates a spike-counting process accounts for Weber's law (Link, 1992), but there exist surprising corollaries of this account that have not yet been described or tested. We show that (a) this spike-counting diffusion model predicts time-scale invariant decision time distributions in perceptual decision making, and time-scale invariant response time (RT) distributions in interval timing; (b) for 2-choice perceptual decisions, the model predicts equal accuracy but faster responding for stimulus pairs with equally scaled-up intensities; (c) the coefficient of variation (CV) of decision times should remain constant across average intensity scales, but should otherwise decrease as a specific function of stimulus discriminability and speed-accuracy trade-off; and (d) for timing tasks, RT CVs should be constant for all durations, and RT skewness should always equal 3 times the CV. We tested these predictions using visual, auditory and vibrotactile decision tasks and visual interval timing tasks in humans. The data conformed closely to the predictions in all modalities. These results support a unified theory of decision making and timing in terms of a common, underlying spike-counting process, compactly represented as a diffusion process. (PsycINFO Database Record PMID:26461957

We analyse Whipple TeV gamma-ray data from active states of Mkn501 for short timescale variability using the new Excess Pair Fraction (EPF) method. No evidence is found for significant variability on timescales less than 10 minutes.

The Interchange No. NCC2-5149 deals with the emerging technology of photonic (or optoelectronic) integrated circuits (PICs or OEICs). In PICs, optical and electronic components are grown together on the same chip. To build such devices and subsystems, one needs to model the entire chip. PICs are useful for building components for integrated optical transmitters, integrated optical receivers, optical data storage systems, optical interconnects, and optical computers. For example, the current commercial rate for optical data transmission is 2.5 gigabits per second, whereas the use of shorter pulses to improve optical transmission rates would yield an increase of 400 to 1000 times. The improved optical data transmitters would be used in telecommunications networks and computer local-area networks. Also, these components can be applied to activities in space, such as satellite to satellite communications, when the data transmissions are made at optical frequencies. The research project consisted of developing accurate computer modeling of electromagnetic wave propagation in semiconductors. Such modeling is necessary for the successful development of PICs. More specifically, these computer codes would enable the modeling of such devices, including their subsystems, such as semiconductor lasers and semiconductor amplifiers in which there is femtosecond pulse propagation. Presently, there are no computer codes that could provide this modeling. Current codes do not solve the full vector, nonlinear, Maxwell's equations, which are required for these short pulses and also current codes do not solve the semiconductor Bloch equations, which are required to accurately describe the material's interaction with femtosecond pulses. The research performed under NCC2-5149 solves the combined Maxwell's and Bloch's equations.

Variation in quasar magnitude from night to night can reveal long term variability trends as well as have a greater chance of detecting sudden luminosity changes than a typical long-term variability survey. In this study, five quasars with a range of properties were observed approximately every other night over 40 days using the 24" NFO webscope in Silver City, NM. Three 200 second exposure images were taken in both the R and V color filters each observation. Two passbands were used so that the data could be correlated to support findings. The images were stacked and processed using IRAF and SExtractor. Differential photometry using field stars was utilized. The five quasars were selected so that as large a range of redshift and absolute magnitude observable by the NFO webscope was represented. They are: (1) MRK 0877 with z=0.1124, (2) 3C-334 a RQQ with z=0.5551, (3) HS 1603+3820 a very luminous, very distant QSO with z=2.51, and two quasars from the QUEST survey (J1507-0202 and J1507-0207) which were selected because they both showed evidence of magnitude variations during the QUEST1 survey. Two of the observed quasars showed no significant variability. 3C-334 displayed a sudden apparent magnitude jump in both passbands, with Δ mR = 0.5602 ± 0.0474, corresponding to an increase of 6.62E+11 solar luminosities on June 21st. The magnitude returned to previous levels by the next observation. QUEST 1507-0202 and MRK 0877 suggested evidence of small long term variability over the 40 day study. Future observations revealing significant changes in magnitude corresponding to these trends may lead to the conclusion that these slow long-term variations can be detected over a 40 day time period with frequent observations. Funding was provided through an Arkansas Space Center grant.

The main objective of the Joint-Research Interchange NCC2-5149 was to develop computer codes for accurate simulation of femtosecond pulse propagation in semiconductor lasers and semiconductor amplifiers [I]. The code should take into account all relevant processes such as the interband and intraband carrier relaxation mechanisms and the many-body effects arising from the Coulomb interaction among charge carriers [2]. This objective was fully accomplished. We made use of a previously developed algorithm developed at NASA Ames [3]-[5]. The new algorithm was tested on several problems of practical importance. One such problem was related to the amplification of femtosecond optical pulses in semiconductors. These results were presented in several international conferences over a period of three years. With the help of a postdoctoral fellow, we also investigated the origin of instabilities that can lead to the formation of femtosecond pulses in different kinds of lasers. We analyzed the occurrence of absolute instabilities in lasers that contain a dispersive host material with third-order nonlinearities. Starting from the Maxwell-Bloch equations, we derived general multimode equations to distinguish between convective and absolute instabilities. We find that both self-phase modulation and intensity-dependent absorption can dramatically affect the absolute stability of such lasers. In particular, the self-pulsing threshold (the so-called second laser threshold) can occur at few times the first laser threshold even in good-cavity lasers for which no self-pulsing occurs in the absence of intensity-dependent absorption. These results were presented in an international conference and published in the form of two papers.

Two concepts are introduced for detecting abrupt climate changes. In the first case, the sampling frequency of climate data is high as compared to the frequency of climate events examined. The method is based on a separation of trend and noise in the data and is applicable to any dataset that satisfies some mild smoothness and statistical dependence conditions for the trend and the noise, respectively. We say that an abrupt change occurs when the first derivative of the trend function has a discontinuity and the task is to identify such points. The technique is applied to Northern Hemisphere temperature data from 1850 to 2009, Northern Hemisphere temperature data from proxy data, a.d. 200-1995 and Holocene δ18O values going back to 11,700 years BP. Several abrupt changes are detected that are, among other things, beneficial for determining the Medieval Warm Period, Little Ice Age and Holocene Climate Optimum. In the second case, the sampling frequency is low relative to the frequency of climate events studied. A typical example includes Dansgaard-Oeschger events. The methodology used here is based on a refinement of autoregressive conditional heteroscedastic models. The key element of this approach is the volatility that characterises the time-varying variance, and abrupt changes are defined by high volatilities. The technique applied to δ18O values going back to 122,950 years BP is suitable for identifying DO events. These two approaches for the two cases are closely related despite the fact that at first glance, they seem quite different.

Using detrital zircon geochronology, turbidite deposystems fed from distinct sediment sources can be distinguished within the Songpan-Ganzi complex, a collapsed Middle to Late Triassic turbidite basin of central China. A southern Songpan-Ganzi deposystem initially was sourced solely by erosion of the Qinling-Dabie orogen during early Late Triassictime, then by Qinling-Dabie orogen, North China block, and South China block sources during middle to late Late Triassictime. A northern Songpan-Ganzi system was sourced by erosion of the Qinling-Dabie orogen and the North China block throughout its deposition. These separate deposystems were later tectonically amalgamated to form one complex and then uplifted as the eastern Tibet Plateau. ?? 2006 Geological Society of America.

Saline fluids with moderate concentrations have been sampled and reported in the Armorican basement at the regional scale (northwestern France). The horizontal and vertical distributions of high chloride concentrations (60-1400mg/L) at the regional scale support the marine origin and provide constraints on the age of these saline fluids. The current distribution of fresh and "saline" groundwater at depth is the result mostly of processes occurring at geological timescales - seawater intrusion processes followed by fresh groundwater flushing -, and only slightly of recent anthropogenic activities. In this study, we focus on seawater intrusion mechanisms in continental aquifers. We argue that one of the most efficient processes in macrotidal environments is the gravity-driven downconing instability below coastal salinized rivers. 2-D numerical experiments have been used to quantify this process according to four main parameter types: (1) the groundwater system permeability, (2) the salinity degree of the river, (3) the river width and slope, and (4) the tidal amplitude. A general expression of the salinity inflow rates have been derived, which has been used to estimate groundwater salinization rates in Brittany, given the geomorphological and environmental characteristics (drainage basin area, river widths and slopes, tidal range, aquifer permeability). We found that downconing below coastal rivers entail very high saline rates, indicating that this process play a major role in the salinization of regional aquifers. This is also likely to be an issue in the context of climate change, where sea-level rise is expected.

Many network analyzing methods are usually based on static networks. However, temporal networks should be considered so as to investigate real complex systems deeply since some dynamics on these systems cannot be described by static networks accurately. In this paper, four structural properties in temporal networks are empirically studied, including degree, clustering coefficient, adjacent correlation, and connected component. Three real temporal networks with different timescales are analyzed in this paper, including short message, telephone, and router networks. Moreover, structural properties of these temporal networks are compared with that of corresponding static aggregation networks in the whole time window. Some essential differences of structural properties between temporal and static networks are achieved through empirical analysis. Finally, the effect of structural properties on spreading dynamics under different timescales is investigated. Some interesting results such as turning point of structure evolving timescale corresponding to certain spreading dynamics timescale from the point of view of infected scale are achieved.

Albitization of feldspars is a widespread mineral replacement process of the upper crust. An ubiquitous and pervasive red-staining albitization of feldspars has been observed in the feldspathic rocks of the Variscan basement in the Sudetes, Armorican, Morvan, Roc de Frausa and Montseny-Guilleries Massifs (Western Europe). These crystalline massifs were strongly eroded during Permian and Triassictimes and suffered a long-lasting exposition in the Permian-Triassic palaeosurface. The albitized rocks contain minute Fe-oxides hoisted within the microporosity of the secondary albite. The intimate textural relationship between the Fe-oxides and the albite strongly suggest that they are coetaneous with albitization. The microscope, cathodoluminescence, SEM and EMPA analyses reveal that almost all plagioclases and some K-feldspars are albitized in those areas close to the Permian-Triassic palaeosurface. Moving downwards the palaeosurface the albitization of Variscan rocks progressively disappears. Field mapping of the albitized areas points to estimated thickness about 100-200m. In the uppermost parts of the profile almost all plagioclases are totally albitized and the rock shows a strong and pervasive reddening, whereas in the lowermost parts the mineral replacement is restricted to fractures and neighbouring walls and the rock in tinted with a soft pink colour. These observations suggest that albitization is linked to that palaeosurface and constitutes a paleoalteration profile beneath the Permian-Triassic palaeosurface. All these observations suggest that the mineral replacement could have been driven by descending Na+ rich brines related with or coming from the Permian-Triassic palaeosurface. Ricodel et al. (2007) determined a Triassic age for the paleomagnetic signature of the Fe-oxides hoisted within the microporosity of albite in the Morvan Massif. The narrow textural relationship between the Fe-oxides and the albite support the idea that this is the age of

In this work we rebuilt the first attempts on the creation of the Program of Formation on a Large Scale of Elementary and High School people for basic health services. We examined the Program of Formation on a Large Scale from its beginning, being supported by documentary sources, such as Izabel dos Santos's interview, which filled in all the meanings of this experience. In the investigations, we went trough the purpose and the procedures of the proposal on a national scale. According to our point of view, this experience acquired a wider meaning of qualification: in which the focal point of the work, as a condition to workers' formation process, constituted as a methodological-pedagogical purpose of qualification at the work environment in order to obtain a critical professional. PMID:19768343

In epidemiologic cohort studies of chronic diseases, such as heart disease or cancer, confounding by age can bias the estimated effects of risk factors under study. With Cox proportional-hazards regression modeling in such studies, it would generally be recommended that chronological age be handled nonparametrically as the primary timescale. However, studies involving baseline measurements of biomarkers or other factors frequently use follow-up time since measurement as the primary timescale, with no explicit justification. The effects of age are adjusted for by modeling age at entry as a parametric covariate. Parametric adjustment raises the question of model adequacy, in that it assumes a known functional relationship between age and disease, whereas using age as the primary timescale does not. We illustrate this graphically and show intuitively why the parametric approach to age adjustment using follow-up time as the primary timescale provides a poor approximation to age-specific incidence. Adequate parametric adjustment for age could require extensive modeling, which is wasteful, given the simplicity of using age as the primary timescale. Furthermore, the underlying hazard with follow-up time based on arbitrary timing of study initiation may have no inherent meaning in terms of risk. Given the potential for biased risk estimates, age should be considered as the preferred timescale for proportional-hazards regression with epidemiologic follow-up data when confounding by age is a concern. PMID:22517300

In this paper, we first give a new definition of almost periodic timescales, two new definitions of almost periodic functions on timescales and investigate some basic properties of them. Then, as an application, by using a fixed point theorem in Banach space and the timescale calculus theory, we obtain some sufficient conditions for the existence and exponential stability of positive almost periodic solutions for a class of Nicholson's blowflies models on timescales. Finally, we present an illustrative example to show the effectiveness of obtained results. Our results show that under a simple condition the continuous-time Nicholson's blowflies model and its discrete-time analogue have the same dynamical behaviors. PMID:27468397

We approach heart interbeat rate by observing the evolution of its stability on scales and time, using tools for the analysis of frequency standards. In particular, we employ the dynamic Allan variance, which is used to characterize the time-varying stability of an atomic clock, to analyze heart interbeat time series for normal subjects and patients with congestive heart failure (CHF). Our stability analysis shows that healthy dynamics is characterized by at least two stability regions along different scales. In contrast, diseased patients exhibit at least three different stability regions; over short scales the fluctuations resembled white-noise behavior whereas for large scales a drift is observed. The inflection points delimiting the first two stability regions for both groups are located around the same scales. Moreover, we find that CHF patients show lower variation of the stability in time than healthy subjects.

Climate models are evaluated by comparing them with other models and (when possible), with climate data: one attempts to match the data and numerics as closely as possible pixel by pixel, time step by time step- i.e. deterministically. As a consequence very little attention has been paid to understanding the space-time statistical properties of the models and data. There is little understanding of the convergence of the model and data to their 'climates' and to each other. In the time domain, there is no objective definition of the distinction between weather and climate in the spatial domain, there is corresponding lack of understanding of climate regions. In order to overcome this, we systematically study the statistics of fluctuations (primarily of temperature but also precipitation and pressure) as function of space and time. For both data and models, we find that in space, that fluctuations increase up to about 5000 km before starting to decrease; this quantitatively defines the typical size of regional climates. In time, we find that fluctuations decrease out to about 10-30 years in the industrial epoch, out to 50 -100 years in the pre-industrial epoch and then starts to increase; this defines the difference between 'macroweather' and the climate. Applying fluctuation analysis to longer timescales, we examine last millennium simulations from four GCMs, we show that control runs only reproduce macroweather. When various (reconstructed) climate forcings are included, in the recent (industrial) period they show global fluctuations strongly increasing at scales >_10-30 yr, which is quite close to the observations. However, in the preindustrial period we find that the multicentennial variabilities are too weak and by analysing the scale dependence of solar and volcanic forcings, we argue that these forcings are unlikely to be sufficiently strong to account for the multicentennial and longer-scale temperature variability. A likely explanation is that the models

The Permian-Triassic boundary interval in China comprises a significant record of faunal and floral changes during this important extinction event. Here we discuss the details of palynomorph preservation at the classical Western Guizhou and Eastern Yunnan sections in an effort to expand the stratigraphy and paleontology from these earlier studies.

The Moesian Platform occupies a wide area in Bulgaria and Romania, being surrounded to the north and west by the South Carpathians and to the south by the Balkans. The lithostratigraphic division of the representative cross-sections of the Triassic system is performed for both countries. The applied methodology in defining the lithostratigraphic units and their comparison is based on the internationally accepted, widely used stratigraphic rules. The key role of the present work is to unify positions and technical usage of the Triassic lithostratigraphic units. However, they are relatively different in Bulgaria and Romania, which hampers the cross correlation. The Bulgarian part of the Moesian Platform is examined according to the "Regional Lithostratigraphic Scheme of the Triassic sediments from borehole sections in North Bulgaria" compiled by Chemberski in 1985. The lithostratigraphic division for the Romanian part is based on Paraschiv's work completed in early 1980s. There are three Triassic complexes defined in the Moesian Platform which are divided into formations and horizons. They follow in order of deposition: Lower red bed complex represented by Petrohan Group (Bulgaria) and Rosiori Formation (Romania); Carbonate complex including Iskar Carbonate Group (Bulgaria) and Alexandria Formation and Putinei evaporates (Romania); Upper variegated complex consisting of Moesian Group (Bulgaria) and Segarcea Formation (Romania). The present correlation determines three types of comparative units: analogous units (subjective synonyms); units defined in Bulgarian territory and probably present also in Romania; units located only in the Bulgarian and respectively in the Romanian part of the Moesian Platform.

The Puesto Viejo Group crops out in the San Rafael Block, southwest Mendoza, at approximately 35° S and 68°20‧ W. It consists of the basal mainly grayish Quebrada de los Fósiles Formation (QF) overlying by the reddish Río Seco de la Quebrada Formation (RSQ). The basal unit includes both plant remains (pleuromeians and sphenopsids) and vertebrates (scattered fish scales, dicynodont synapsids and remains of an archosauriform). In contrast, the RSQ beds have yielded only tetrapods, although a more diverse fauna. The latter includes cynodonts as Cynognathus, Pascualognathus and Diademodon, and also dicynodonts (Vinceria and Kannemeyeria). Based on the assemblage of tetrapod taxa the bearing levels were correlated to the Cynognathus AZ of South Africa and thus referred to the Middle Triassic (Anisian). We obtained a SHRIMP 238U/206Pb age of 235.8 ± 2.0 Ma from a rhyolitic ignimbrite interdigitated between the QF and RSQ formations at the Quebrada de los Fósiles section. This new radiometric date for the Puesto Viejo Group suggests that the tetrapod fauna in the RSQ beds existed, instead, during the Late Triassic (early Carnian) some 10 Ma later than the currently accepted age. Two scenarios might explain our results: first, the Cynognathus AZ of South Africa is wrongly assigned to the lower Middle Triassic (Anisan) and should be considered younger in age, Late Triassic (Carnian); second, the relative age of the Cynognathus AZ of South Africa is correct but the inferred range of Cynognathus and Diademodon is incorrect as they were present during the Late Triassic (Carnian) at least in South America. In any case, this new date pose serious doubts about the validity of biostratigraphic correlations based solely on tetrapod taxa, a common practice for Triassic continental successions across Gondwana.

Studies of carbonate, bulk organic, and compound-specific stable isotopes of carbon have shown that the Triassic-Jurassic boundary interval (including the end-Triassic mass extinction) displays major, global perturbations to the carbon cycle. These records are instrumental not only in reconstructing environmental change, as they are thought to reflect ecosystem instability and changing atmospheric gas inventories, but, due to their global nature, can be useful tools for stratigraphic correlation. The Algarve Basin, a deformed, extensional basin in the south of Portugal, has potential for yielding insight into the dramatic paleoenvironmental and faunal changes that occurred during the latest Triassic through earliest Jurassic. During this time interval, the basin records an evolution from continental to marginal marine sediments that are interbedded with radioisotopically dated Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) basalts, thought to be a major causative agent in the end-Triassic mass extinction. Recent field excavations in the Algarve Basin have documented terrestrial vertebrate remains at multiple horizons, including a rich bone bed densely packed with well-preserved remains of large stereospondyl temnospondyls (skull length up to ~1 meter) positioned close to the Triassic-Jurassic boundary. These stereospondyls may represent some of the latest surviving members of their groups in Europe, and occur in a time interval in which stereospondyl material is scarce and represented primarily by isolated and fragmentary material. Unfortunately, the paleoenvironmental and chronologic framework of the Algarve Basin is not well constrained, despite its importance as a critical record of this time in Earth history. We present a preliminary bulk organic carbon isotope record of early Mesozoic rift-basin sediments from the Algarve Basin. This record exhibits significant variability, but appears to record a trend towards more negative values at the top of the section, though

Sarawak is located on the northern edge of Sundaland in NW Borneo. West and Central Sarawak include parts of the Kuching and Sibu Zones. These contain remnants of several sedimentary basins with ages from Triassic to Cenozoic. New light mineral, heavy mineral and U-Pb detrital zircon ages show differences in provenance reflecting the tectonic evolution of the region. The oldest clastic sediments are Triassic (Sadong Formation and its deep marine equivalent Kuching Formation). They were sourced by a Triassic (Carnian to Norian) volcanic arc and reworked Paleoproterozoic detritus derived from Cathaysialand. The Upper Jurassic to Cretaceous Pedawan Formation is interpreted as forearc basin fill with distinctive zircon populations indicating subduction beneath present-day West Sarawak which initiated in the Late Jurassic. Subsequent subduction until the early Late Cretaceous formed the Schwaner Mountains magmatic arc. After collision of SW Borneo and other microcontinental fragments with Sundaland in the early Late Cretaceous, deep marine sedimentation (Pedawan Formation) ceased, and there was uplift forming the regional Pedawan-Kayan unconformity. Two episodes of extension followed and were responsible for basin development on land in West Sarawak from the latest Cretaceous onwards, probably in a pull-apart setting. The first episode is associated with sediments of the Kayan Group, deposited in the Latest Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) to Eocene, and the second episode with Upper Eocene sediments of the Ketungau Basin. Zircon ages indicate volcanic activity throughout the Early Cenozoic in NW Borneo, and inherited zircon ages indicate reworking of Triassic and Cretaceous rocks. A large deep marine basin, the Rajang Basin, was north of the Lupar Line Fault in Central Sarawak (Sibu Zone) from the Late Cretaceous to the Late Eocene. Zircons from sediments of the Rajang Basin indicate they have similar ages and provenance to contemporaneous terrestrial sediments of the Kayan

. Transtensional tectonics activity along the shelf edge, inducing margin retreats, is documented by local angular unconformities, so we cannot exclude the contribution of brittle deformations to the the production of clastic materials. The aggradation of Thaumatoporella-mollusc bearing peritidal cycles in the shelf and of oolitic-bioclastic sands along the shelf-edge indicate the recovery of the carbonate productivity during Early Jurassic times coupled to a sea-level rise during Hettangian times. Moreover an intense shedding of carbonate sands in the adjacent slope and peribasinal areas is recorded in all the studied deep-water successions. In the distal slope zone the observed switching of the intrabasinal carbonate supply from scarce biodetritus containing reef-derived foraminifers (e.g. Galeanella, Siculocosta and others) to abundant oolitic and skeletal sands, bearing Aeolisaccus sp. and Siphovalvulina gibraltarensis, can be used as a proxy of the Triassic/Jurassic boundary.

A sequence of continental rocks overlies the Lower Triassic Thaynes Formation in a poorly exposed syncline near Currie in northeastern NV. The authors recognize four lithostratigraphic units above the Thaynes near Currie and provide new paleontologic data. In ascending order, unit 1 (120 ft) consists of reddish-brown, very fine grained sandstone. Unit 2 (50 ft) consists of light-gray, trough cross-stratified, coarse-grained, conglomeratic sandstone. Unit 3 (at least 500 ft) consists of green, red, and brown sandstone and mudstone. Unit 4 occurs as isolated outcrops of reddish-orange, fine- to medium-grained sandstone. New fossil evidence, while not definitive, constrain the age of this sequence. Plant megafossils in unit 1 include (1) a specimen with narrow ovate leaves, possibly from an early Mesozoic conifer and (2) abundant fragments of probable Neocalamites. The presence of these fossils and the absence of any angiosperm leaves or wood fragments suggest an early Mesozoic age. Ostracodes in unit 3 are exclusively Darwinula sp., and their association with conchostracans in the absence of younger ostracodes suggests a Triassic age. Finally, two small outcrops, previously mapped as Triassic/Jurassic, contain the gastropods Pilidae indet. and Lymnaea sp., which resemble Late Cretaceous to Paleocene faunas. The sequence is similar to the nearest Lower Mesozoic section on the Colorado Plateau at Cove Fort, Utah, 165 miles to the southeast. The authors' new evidence supports the longstanding correlation of units 1--4 with the Lower Triassic Moenkopi Formation (part), the Shinarump and Petrified Forest Members of the Upper Triassic Chinle Formation, and the Lower Jurassic Navajo Sandstone of the Plateau. These rocks at Currie demonstrate that the Early Mesozoic depositional systems of the Colorado Plateau extended at least this far west and provide constraints on Early Mesozoic tectonism in the eastern Great Basin.

Permian-Triassic rocks are widely spread within the West Siberian basin, and they include volcanics, volcanoclastics, and clastics. Their thickness varies from tens of meters of 3000 m. Recently, three commercial oil pools have been discovered in Triassic effusive-sedimentary rocks. These discoveries, together with other geological and geochemical data, identify the Triassic complex as a major play. Oil-bearing intervals have been found in three different types of sequences; a fourth also may be prospective. The first type is represented by lacustrine-terrigenous sediments, which comprise oil-saturated sandstones interbedded with basalts (the Turin series). Oil influxes were obtained in the Yakhlinskaya and Triyurtin-skaya structures in the Shaim region. The second type is distinguished from the first by the presence of coal-bearing intervals in the upper part. Oil was produced in the Yerofeyev area of the Chelyabinsk garben. The third type differs from the other two by the presence of potassic rhyolites and dacites. Their age is not precisely dated, and supposedly they are of Permian age. The largest oil influxes have been obtained from fractured and eroded rocks of this type in the Rogozhnikovskaya and other places in the Krasnoleninsk region. Rhyodacites often underlie Turin basalts, but locally they occur in the upper part of the series. Triassic and Permian-Trissic rocks of the three types are overlain by Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks with a large break. The fourth type of section is completely terrigenous (Tampei series). It is developed in the northern part of west Siberia. Here Triassic sediments are overlain by the Jurassic complex without a break. According to well-log data, productive horizons occur at Urengoy and Beregovaya (in the Urengoy region).

Autonomous Boolean networks are commonly used to model the dynamics of gene regulatory networks and allow for the prediction of stable dynamical attractors. However, most models do not account for time delays along the network links and noise, which are crucial features of real biological systems. Concentrating on two paradigmatic motifs, the toggle switch and the repressilator, we develop an experimental testbed that explicitly includes both inter-node time delays and noise using digital logic elements on field-programmable gate arrays. We observe transients that last millions to billions of characteristic timescales and scale exponentially with the amount of time delays between nodes, a phenomenon known as super-transient scaling. We develop a hybrid model that includes time delays along network links and allows for stochastic variation in the delays. Using this model, we explain the observed super-transient scaling of both motifs and recreate the experimentally measured transient distributions.

Many large-scale clusters now have hundreds of thousands of processors, and processor counts will be over one million within a few years. Computational scientists must scale their applications to exploit these new clusters. Time-constrained scaling, which is often used, tries to hold total execution time constant while increasing the problem size along with the processor count. However, complex interactions between parameters, the processor count, and execution time complicate determining the input parameters that achieve this goal. In this paper we develop a novel gray-box, focused median prediction errors are less than 13%. regression-based approach that assists the computational scientist with maintaining constant run time on increasing processor counts. Combining application-level information from a small set of training runs, our approach allows prediction of the input parameters that result in similar per-processor execution time at larger scales. Our experimental validation across seven applications showed that median prediction errors are less than 13%.

We report a universal scaling behavior of the first arrival time of a traveling magnetic domain wall into a finite space-time observation window of a magneto-optical microscope enabling direct visualization of a Barkhausen avalanche in real time. The first arrival time of the traveling magnetic domain wall exhibits a nontrivial fluctuation and its statistical distribution is described by universal power-law scaling with scaling exponents of 1.34±0.07 for CoCr and CoCrPt films, despite their quite different domain evolution patterns. Numerical simulation of the first arrival time with an assumption that the magnetic domain wall traveled as a random walker well matches our experimentally observed scaling behavior, providing an experimental support for the random-walking model of traveling magnetic domain walls.

We report a universal scaling behavior of the first arrival time of a traveling magnetic domain wall into a finite space-time observation window of a magneto-optical microscope enabling direct visualization of a Barkhausen avalanche in real time. The first arrival time of the traveling magnetic domain wall exhibits a nontrivial fluctuation and its statistical distribution is described by universal power-law scaling with scaling exponents of 1.34+/-0.07 for CoCr and CoCrPt films, despite their quite different domain evolution patterns. Numerical simulation of the first arrival time with an assumption that the magnetic domain wall traveled as a random walker well matches our experimentally observed scaling behavior, providing an experimental support for the random-walking model of traveling magnetic domain walls. PMID:18518241

We report a universal scaling behavior of the first arrival time of a traveling magnetic domain wall into a finite space-time observation window of a magneto-optical microscope enabling direct visualization of a Barkhausen avalanche in real time. The first arrival time of the traveling magnetic domain wall exhibits a nontrivial fluctuation and its statistical distribution is described by universal power-law scaling with scaling exponents of 1.34 {+-} 0.07 for CoCr and CoCrPt films, despite their quite different domain evolution patterns. Numerical simulation of the first arrival time with an assumption that the magnetic domain wall traveled as a random walker well matches our experimentally observed scaling behavior, providing an experimental support for the random-walking model of traveling magnetic domain walls.

Several viable halophilic archaebacteria were isolated previously from rock salt of Permo-Triassic age in an Austrian salt mine; one of these strains was the first to be recognized as a novel species from subterranean halite and was designated Halococcus salifodinae. The halophilic microorganisms have apparently survived in the salt sediments over extremely long periods of time. Halobacteria could therefore be suitable model organisms for exploring the possibility of long-term survival of microbes on other planets, in particular, since extraterrestrial halite has been detected in meteorites and is assumed to be present in the subsurface ocean on Europa. Our efforts are directed at the identification of the microbial content of ancient rock salt and the development of procedures for the investigation of the halobacterial response to extreme environmental conditions. Using modified culture media, further halophilic strains were isolated from freshly blasted rock salt and bore cores; in addition, growth of several haloarchaea was substantially improved. Molecular methods indicated the presence of at least 12 different 16S rRNA gene species in a sample of Alpine rock salt, but these strains have not been cultured yet. The exploration of Mars is a target of space missions in the 21st century; therefore, testing the survival of haloarchaea under conditions comparable to present-day Mars, using a simulation chamber, was begun. Preliminary results with Halococcus and Halobacterium species suggested at least tenfold higher survival rates when cells were kept in liquid brines than under dry conditions; staining of cells with the LIVE DEAD kit, which discriminates between damaged and intact membranes, corroborated these data.

We propose a method to infer the coupling structure in networks of nonlinear oscillatory systems with multiple timescales. The method of partial phase synchronization allows us to infer the coupling structure for coupled nonlinear oscillators with one well-defined timescale. The case of oscillators with multiple timescales has remained a challenge until now. Here, we introduce partial recurrence based synchronization analysis to tackle this challenge. We successfully apply the proposed method to model systems and experimental data from coupled electrochemical oscillators. The statistical significance of the results is evaluated based on a surrogate hypothesis test.

We decompose financial return series of US stocks into different timescales with respect to different market regimes. First, we examine dependence structure of decomposed financial return series and analyze the impact of the current financial crisis on contagion and changing interdependencies as well as upper and lower tail dependence for different timescales. Second, we demonstrate to which extent the information of different timescales can be used in the context of portfolio management. As a result, minimizing the variance of short-run noise outperforms a portfolio that minimizes the variance of the return series.

The Hartford basin of CT and MA contains at least 7 km of continental deposits formed during the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic. About 3 km of the middle part of the section beginning at the oldest flood basalt sequence of Jurassic age, part of the CAMP LIP, are characterized by fine-grained lacustrine strata that based on fourier analysis exhibit a hierarchy of sedimentary cycles characteristic of Milankovitch climate forcing. Cycles with periods of ~20, ~100, and 405 ky are present and a larger scale cyclicity with a period of 1.75 m.y. carries on from the Triassic pattern seen in continuous core from the 100-km distant cyclical Newark basin sequence. Six virtually complete 405 ky cycles are present, with the oldest one beginning close to the Triassic-Jurassic boundary. Based on paleomagnetic polarity stratigraphic correlation with the Moncornet core of the marine Paris basin (Yang et al., 1996 J.G.R. 101:8025), the youngest of these 400 ky cycles is of early Sinemurian or very latest Hettangian age, giving a duration for the Hettangian of approximately 2 m.y. Assuming an age of approximately 201.3 Ma for the basal lava flow (from Schoene et al, 2006, Geochem. Cosmochim. Acta 70:426), this gives a Hettangian-Sinemurian boundary age of about 199 Ma, with the precision limited by the biostratigraphy in the Moncornet core. This age is in agreement with the new high-precision U-Pb dates from marine sections (Pálfy & Mudil, 2007, Volumina Jurassica, IV:294), providing independent confirmation of the orbital forcing interpretation.

The Permian-Triassic transition (P-T) was marked by important geochemical perturbations and the largest known life crisis. Consequences of this event, as oxygen-depleted conditions and the unusual behavior of the carbon cycle, were prolonged during the Early Triassic interval delaying the recovery of life in both terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Studies on Lower Triassic sediments of continental origin, as in the case of Western Europe, are especially problematic due to the scarcity of fossils and absence of precise dating. The Cañizar Fm. is an Early-Middle Triassic unit of continental origin of the SE Iberian Ranges, E Spain. A detailed sedimentary study of this unit allows a shedding of light on some unresolved problems of the continental deposits of this age. The top of this unit is dated as early Anisian by means of a pollen association, while the age of its base is here estimated as late Smithian or Smithian-Spathian transition. Different facies associations and architectural elements have been defined in this unit. In the western and central parts of the basin, this unit shows sedimentary characteristics of fluvial deposits with locally intercalated aeolian sediments, while in the eastern part there is an alternation of both aeolian and fluvial deposits. Sedimentary structures also indicate changes in the climate conditions, mainly from arid to semiarid. Two marked arid periods when well-preserved aeolian sediments developed during early-middle Spathian and Spathian-Anisian transition. They alternated with two semiarid but more humid periods during the late Spathian and early Anisian. These conditions basically correspond with the general arid and very arid conditions described for central-western European plate during the same period of time. The Ateca-Montalbán High, in the northern border of the study basin, must have represented an important topographic barrier in the western Tethys separating aeolian dominated areas to the N and NE from fluvial

Fossils from the central Transantarctic Mountains in Antarctica are referred to a new species of the Triassic genus Kombuisia, one of four dicynodont lineages known to survive the end-Permian mass extinction. The specimens show a unique combination of characters only present in this genus, but the new species can be distinguished from the type species of the genus, Kombuisia frerensis, by the presence of a reduced but slit-like pineal foramen and the lack of contact between the postorbitals. Although incomplete, the Antarctic specimens are significant because Kombuisia was previously known only from the South African Karoo Basin and the new specimens extend the taxon’s biogeographic range to a wider portion of southern Pangaea. In addition, the new finds extend the known stratigraphic range of Kombuisia from the Middle Triassic subzone B of the Cynognathus Assemblage Zone into rocks that are equivalent in age to the Lower Triassic Lystrosaurus Assemblage Zone, shortening the proposed ghost lineage of this taxon. Most importantly, the occurrence of Kombuisia and Lystrosaurus mccaigi in the Lower Triassic of Antarctica suggests that this area served as a refuge from some of the effects of the end-Permian extinction. The composition of the lower Fremouw Formation fauna implies a community structure similar to that of the ecologically anomalous Lystrosaurus Assemblage Zone of South Africa, providing additional evidence for widespread ecological disturbance in the extinction’s aftermath.

The results of a theoretical isotope mass balance model are presented for the time dependence of burial and weathering-plus-degassing fluxes within the combined long-term carbon and sulfur cycles. Averaged data for oceanic δ 13C and δ 34S were entered for every million years from 270 to 240 Ma (middle Permian to middle Triassic) to study general trends across the Permian-Triassic boundary. Results show a drop in the rate of global organic matter burial during the late Permian and a predominance of low values during the early-to-middle Triassic. This overall decrease with time is ascribed mainly to epochs of conversion of high biomass forests to low biomass herbaceous vegetation resulting in a decrease in the production of terrestrially derived organic debris. Additional contributions to lessened terrestrial carbon burial were increased aridity and a drop in sea level during the late Permian which led to smaller areas of low-lying coastal wetlands suitable for coal and peat deposition. Mirroring the drop in organic matter deposition was an increase in the burial of sedimentary pyrite, and a dramatic increase in the calculated global mean ratio of pyrite-S to organic-C. High S/C values resulted from an increase of deposition in marine euxinic basins combined with a decrease in the burial of low-pyrite associated terrestrial organic matter. The prediction of increased oceanic anoxia during the late Permian and early Triassic agrees with independent studies of the composition of sedimentary rocks. Weathering plus burial fluxes for organic carbon and pyrite sulfur were used to calculate changes in atmospheric oxygen. The striking result is a continuous drop in O 2 concentration from ˜30% to ˜13% over a twenty million year period. This drop was brought about mainly by a decrease in the burial of terrestrially derived organic matter. but with a possible contribution from the weathering of older organic matter on land. It must have exerted a considerable influence on

The Triassic Period records a critical interval of Phanerozoic Earth history, including major paleoenvironmental changes in a greenhouse world, recovery from one mass extinction and the onset of another, and the origin of modern terrestrial ecosystems. Recent efforts have been instrumental in calibrating the timing of these events by producing numerous high resolution radioisotopic ages from Early and Middle Triassic marine strata that facilitate building of a robust 20 Ma chronostratigraphic framework. This contrasts starkly with the Late Triassic (Carnian, Norian, and Rhaetian stages), where ~30 Ma of the timescale is virtually uncalibrated by high-resolution radioisotopic data. This is the only interval of such long duration in the Mesozoic or Cenozoic that remains so poorly constrained by reliable absolute ages, despite the occurrence of major events such as the origin and early diversification of dinosaurs, major reef building episodes in marine ecosystems, key paleoenvironmental changes (e.g., Carnian Pluvial Event), and large extraterrestrial bolide impacts (e.g., Manicouagan). An additional challenge is that the biostratigraphically-defined marine timescale cannot be applied globally, so that other areas (e.g., New Zealand) have independent timescales that cannot be confidently correlated to classic Laurasian sections. All of these problems preclude formulating robust first-order hypotheses about the Late Triassic world. We present new CA-TIMS U-Pb zircon data from volcaniclastic units within both marine and terrestrial strata that aim at calibrating the timescale itself and as a result constrain the timing of some of these major events in Earth history. Several preliminary ages support the hypothesis that the Norian Stage was very long, ~20 Ma. Our new data from marine sequences in New Zealand demonstrate that the timescale divisions there do not correlate directly with biostratigraphic boundaries in the Tethys; specifically, the Ladinian-Carnian boundary

In this contribution, a new timescale named C-fluctuation time is defined by price fluctuations observed at a given resolution. The intraday fractal structures and the relations of the three timescales: real time (physical time), tick time and C-fluctuation time, in foreign exchange markets are analyzed. The data set used is trading prices of foreign exchange rates; US dollar (USD)/Japanese yen (JPY), USD/Euro (EUR), and EUR/JPY. The accuracy of the data is one minute and data within a minute are recorded in order of transaction. The series of instantaneous velocity of C-fluctuation time flowing are exponentially distributed for small C when they are measured by real time and for tiny C when they are measured by tick time. When the market is volatile, for larger C, the series of instantaneous velocity are exponentially distributed.

The transmission of the tectonic regime from the Paleo-Asian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean during Mesozoic era was reconstructed using the modeling of Late Triassic (T 3) and Late Jurassic (J 3) stress fields employing two dimensional linear finite element models (2-D FEM). The model at T 3 proposes that Qinling-Dabie-Sulu orogens coevally collided and the model J 3 proposes that Subei block continued to collide with the North China block along the Sulu orogen while the collision of the Qinling-Dabie orogen was terminated. The stress fields at T 3 and J 3 during the two episodes were calculated based on mechanical conditions under different deviatoric stresses acting along the boundaries of the North China craton by elastic finite modeling. The transmission between two episodes of stress fields resulted from Qinling-Dabie-Sulu collision between North China and South China in the Late Triassic period, and from continued collision between the Subei block and North China by the NW-trending movement of Izanagi plate during Late Jurassic. The results from modeling of the Mesozoic stress fields of the North China suggest that late Jurassic was the key transmission period of the tectonic regime of the North China block when large scale thrusting triggered the subsequent destruction of the North China craton.

The effectiveness of a multiscale neural-network (NN) architecture for the time series prediction of nonlinear dynamic systems has been investigated. The prediction task is simplified by decomposing different scales of past windows into different scales of wavelets (local frequencies), and predicting the coefficients of each scale of wavelets by means of a separate multilayer perceptron NN. The short-term history (short past windows) is decomposed into the lower scales of wavelet coefficients (high frequencies) which are utilized for "detailed" analysis and prediction, while the long-term history (long past window) is decomposed into higher scales of wavelet coefficients (low frequencies) that are used for the analysis and prediction of slow trends in the time series. These coordinated scales of time and frequency provides an interpretation of the series structures, and more information about the history of the series, using fewer coefficients than other methods. The prediction's results concerning all the different scales of time and frequencies are combined by another "expert" perceptron NN which learns the weight of each scale in the goal-prediction of the original time series. Each network is trained by the backpropagation algorithm using the Levenberg-Marquadt method. The weights and biases are initialized by a new clustering algorithm of the temporal patterns of the time series, which improves the prediction results as compared to random initialization. Three main sets of data were analyzed: the sunspots' benchmark, fluctuations in a farinfrared laser and a nonlinear numerically generated series. Taking the ultimate goal to be the accuracy of the prediction, we found that the suggested multiscale architecture outperforms the corresponding single-scale architectures. The employment of improved learning methods for each of the ScaleNet networks can further improve the prediction results. PMID:18255824

Today's electrical grids enjoy a relatively clean separation of spatio-temporal scales yielding a compartmentalization of grid design, optimization, control and risk assessment allowing for the use of conventional mathematical tools within each area. In contrast, the future grid will incorporate time-intermittent renewable generation, operate via faster electrical markets, and tap the latent control capability at finer grid modeling scales; creating a fundamentally new set of couplings across spatiotemporal scales and requiring revolutionary advances in mathematics techniques to bridge these scales. One example is found in decade-scale grid expansion planning in which today's algorithms assume accurate load forecasts and well-controlled generation. Incorporating intermittent renewable generation creates fluctuating network flows at the hourly timescale, inherently linking the ability of a transmission line to deliver electrical power to hourly operational decisions. New operations-based planning algorithms are required, creating new mathematical challenges. Spatio-temporal scales are also crossed when the future grid's minute-scale fluctuations in network flows (due to intermittent generation) create a disordered state upon which second-scale transient grid dynamics propagate effectively invalidating today's on-line dynamic stability analyses. Addressing this challenge requires new on-line algorithms that use large data streams from new grid sensing technologies to physically aggregate across many spatial scales to create responsive, data-driven dynamic models. Here, we sketch the mathematical foundations of these problems and potential solutions.

The lower Triassic is well preserved in Chaohu Region, Anhui Province, East China. It can be divided into Yinkeng Formation (80 meters thick, was formed during the Indian and early Smitian), Helongshan Formation (21 meters thick, was formed during the end Smithian) and Nanlinghu Formation (more than 157 meters thick, was formed during the Spathian) from bottom to top. It is mainly composed of carbonatites such as micrite limestones and nodular limestones, as well as shales and calcareous marls. The lower Triassic in this area has been well researched for more than a decade, and many fossils such as ammonites, bivalves, fishes, ichthyosaurus, conodonts, and ichnofossils have been found, but the microbiolites have been neglected. Microbiolites were mainly outcropped in the Helongshan Formaiton and the lower Nanlinghu Formation. In the lower Helongshan Formaiton, tens microbial mat layers and thin bedded calcareous marl layers formed cyclothems which have been named as nodular limstones. The thin-section observation of the microbial mats indicate that many films and thin-shell bivalve fragments deposited almost horizontally. In the upper Helongshan Formaiton, six microstromatolite bioherm layers were outcropped in the thin bedded calcareous marl layers. The diameter of the stromatolite column is about 2 millimeters, the bioherms are lenticular and no more than 3 centimeters thick in the central, their diameters change from 5 centimeters to 30 centimeters, calcareous marls were deposited around the bioherms, and many ammonoids, bivalves and burrows were found in such layers. The microfacies differentiation of the stromatolites such as the basement, reef core and the capping beds can be recognised clearly in thin sections. Several microstromatolite layers were outcropped in the micritic limestones with a stable thickness of 15 millimeters in the lower Nanlinghu Formation and the stromatolite column look like the ones in the Helongshan Formation. Few microbiolites have

Chintalapudi area Late Permian and Early Triassic palynoflora has been recorded for the first time indicating existence of Raniganj and Panchet sediments as well. The study further supports the earlier studies of Jha and Srivastava (1996) that Kamthi Formation represents Early Triassic (=Panchet Formation) overlying Raniganj equivalent sediments with a gradational contact.

Investigated factor structure and scale reliabilities of Gough's Adjective Check List (ACL) and their stability over time. Employees in a community mental health center completed the ACL twice, separated by a one-year interval. After each administration, separate factor analyses were computed. All scales had highly significant test-retest…

Porphyry dikes and hydrothermal veins from the porphyry Cu-Mo deposit at Butte, Montana, contain multiple generations of quartz that are distinct in scanning electron microscope-cathodoluminescence (SEM-CL) images and in Ti concentrations. A comparison of microprobe trace element profiles and maps to SEM-CL images shows that the concentration of Ti in quartz correlates positively with CL brightness but Al, K, and Fe do not. After calibrating CL brightness in relation to Ti concentration, we use the brightness gradient between different quartz generations as a proxy for Ti gradients that we model to determine timescales of quartz formation and cooling. Model results indicate that timescales of porphyry magma residence are ~1,000s of years and timescales from porphyry quartz phenocryst rim formation to porphyry dike injection and cooling are ~10s of years. Timescales for the formation and cooling of various generations of hydrothermal vein quartz range from 10s to 10,000s of years. These timescales are considerably shorter than the ~0.6 m.y. overall time frame for each porphyry-style mineralization pulse determined from isotopic studies at Butte, Montana. Simple heat conduction models provide a temporal reference point to compare chemical diffusion timescales, and we find that they support short dike and vein formation timescales. We interpret these relatively short timescales to indicate that the Butte porphyry deposit formed by short-lived episodes of hydrofracturing, dike injection, and vein formation, each with discrete thermal pulses, which repeated over the ~3 m.y. generation of the deposit.

Many convective parameterization schemes define a convective adjustment timescale τ as the time allowed for dissipation of convective available potential energy (CAPE). The Kain–Fritsch scheme defines τ based on an estimate of the advective time period for deep con...

Gliding adaptations in thoracopterid flying fishes represent a remarkable case of convergent evolution of overwater gliding strategy with modern exocoetid flying fishes, but the evolutionary origin of this strategy was poorly known in the thoracopterids because of lack of transitional forms. Until recently, all thoracopterids, from the Late Triassic of Austria and Italy and the Middle Triassic of South China, were highly specialized ‘four-winged’ gliders in having wing-like paired fins and an asymmetrical caudal fin with the lower caudal lobe notably larger than the upper lobe. Here, we show that the new genus Wushaichthys and the previously alleged ‘peltopleurid’ Peripeltopleurus, from the Middle Triassic (Ladinian, 235–242 Ma) of South China and near the Ladinian/Anisian boundary of southern Switzerland and northern Italy, respectively, represent the most primitive and oldest known thoracopterids. Wushaichthys, the most basal thoracopterid, shows certain derived features of this group in the skull. Peripeltopleurus shows a condition intermediate between Wushaichthys and Thoracopterus in having a slightly asymmetrical caudal fin but still lacking wing-like paired fins. Phylogenetic studies suggest that the evolution of overwater gliding of thoracopterids was gradual in nature; a four-stage adaption following the ‘cranial specialization–asymmetrical caudal fin–enlarged paired fins–scale reduction’ sequence has been recognized in thoracopterid evolution. Moreover, Wushaichthys and Peripeltopleurus bear hooklets on the anal fin of supposed males, resembling those of modern viviparious teleosts. Early thoracopterids probably had evolved a live-bearing reproductive strategy. PMID:25568155

Sedimentologic study of the Upper Triassic Chinle Formation in the San Juan basin (SJB) indicates that Late Triassic paleoclimate and tectonic movements influenced the distribution of continental lithofacies. The Shinarump, Monitor Butte, and Petrified Forest Members in the lower part of the Chinle consist of complexly interfingered fluvial, floodplain, marsh, and lacustrine rocks; the Owl Rock and Rock Point Members in the upper part consists of lacustrine-basin and eolian sandsheet strata. Facies analysis, vertebrate and invertebrate paleontology, and paleoclimate models demonstrate that the Late Triassic was dominated by tropical monsoonal circulation, which provided abundant precipitation interspersed with seasonally dry periods. Owl Rock lacustrine strata comprise laminated limestones that reflect seasonal monsoonal precipitation and larger scale, interbedded carbonates and fine-grained clastics that represent longer term, alternating wet and dry climatic cycles. Overlying Rock Point eolian sand-sheet and dune deposits indicate persistent alternating but drier climatic cyclicity. Within the Chinle, upward succession of lacustrine, alternating lacustrine/eolian sand-sheet, and eolian sand-sheet/dune deposits reflects an overall decrease in precipitation due to the northward migration of Pangaea out of low latitudes dominated by monsoonal circulation.

Gliding adaptations in thoracopterid flying fishes represent a remarkable case of convergent evolution of overwater gliding strategy with modern exocoetid flying fishes, but the evolutionary origin of this strategy was poorly known in the thoracopterids because of lack of transitional forms. Until recently, all thoracopterids, from the Late Triassic of Austria and Italy and the Middle Triassic of South China, were highly specialized 'four-winged' gliders in having wing-like paired fins and an asymmetrical caudal fin with the lower caudal lobe notably larger than the upper lobe. Here, we show that the new genus Wushaichthys and the previously alleged 'peltopleurid' Peripeltopleurus, from the Middle Triassic (Ladinian, 235-242 Ma) of South China and near the Ladinian/Anisian boundary of southern Switzerland and northern Italy, respectively, represent the most primitive and oldest known thoracopterids. Wushaichthys, the most basal thoracopterid, shows certain derived features of this group in the skull. Peripeltopleurus shows a condition intermediate between Wushaichthys and Thoracopterus in having a slightly asymmetrical caudal fin but still lacking wing-like paired fins. Phylogenetic studies suggest that the evolution of overwater gliding of thoracopterids was gradual in nature; a four-stage adaption following the 'cranial specialization-asymmetrical caudal fin-enlarged paired fins-scale reduction' sequence has been recognized in thoracopterid evolution. Moreover, Wushaichthys and Peripeltopleurus bear hooklets on the anal fin of supposed males, resembling those of modern viviparious teleosts. Early thoracopterids probably had evolved a live-bearing reproductive strategy. PMID:25568155

Prediction of hydrological drought in the absence of hydrological records is of great significance for water resources management and risk assessment. In this study, two meteorological drought indices, including standardized precipitation index (SPI) and standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) calculated at different timescales (1 to 12months), were analyzed for their capabilities in detecting hydrological droughts. The predictive skills of meteorological drought indices were assessed through correlation analysis, and two skill scores, i.e. probability of detection (POD) and false alarm rate (FAR). When used independently, indices of short timescales generally performed better than did those of long timescales. However, at least 31% of hydrological droughts were still missed in view of the peak POD score (0.69) of a single meteorological drought index. Considering the distinguished roles of different timescales in explaining hydrological droughts with disparate features, an optimization approach of blending SPI/SPEI at multiple timescales was proposed. To examine the robustness of the proposed method, data of 1964-1990 was used to establish the multiscalar index, then validate during 2000-2010. Results showed that POD exhibited a significant increase when more than two timescales were used, and the best performances were found when blending 8 timescales of SPI and 9 for SPEI, with the corresponding values of 0.82 and 0.85 for POD, 0.205 and 0.21 for FAR, in the calibration period, and even better performance in the validation period. These results far exceeded the performance of any single meteorological drought index. This suggests that when there is lack of streamflow measurements, blending climatic information of multiple timescales to jointly monitor hydrological droughts could be an alternative solution. PMID:27450249

The determination of diagnostic features in recorded heart sounds was investigated with Carpentier-Edwards (CE) bioprosthetic valves. Morphological features, extracted using the Choi-Williams distribution, achieved between 96 and 61% correct classification. The time-scale wavelet-transform feature set achieved 100% correct classification with native valve populations, and 87% with the CE replacements. PMID:9444847

along with other techniques. Quartz from Tipuma Formation sandstone is dominated by quartz of low-T metamorphic and volcanic origin and only with little plutonic quartz. This strongly suggests an input of detritus derived from contemporaneous acid volcanic rocks and some local low-grade metamorphic rocks. The results confirm assessment based on zircon study of the main contemporaneous volcanic activity, which waned or ceased during deposition of the Middle Member of the Tipuma Formation. Widespread Permo-Triassic volcanic activity in the Bird's Head possibly caused contact metamorphism in the area with uplift and erosion of low-T metamorphic rocks. The Tasman Line continues from Eastern Australia through New Guinea, into the Bird's Head region. At least since the Triassic, the Bird's Head has been part of the Gondwana margin and for the first time, we can provide compelling evidence that volcanic activity has played a major role in this region.

Background Lepidosauria (lizards, snakes, tuatara) is a globally distributed and ecologically important group of over 9,000 reptile species. The earliest fossil records are currently restricted to the Late Triassic and often dated to 227 million years ago (Mya). As these early records include taxa that are relatively derived in their morphology (e.g. Brachyrhinodon), an earlier unknown history of Lepidosauria is implied. However, molecular age estimates for Lepidosauria have been problematic; dates for the most recent common ancestor of all lepidosaurs range between approximately 226 and 289 Mya whereas estimates for crown-group Squamata (lizards and snakes) vary more dramatically: 179 to 294 Mya. This uncertainty restricts inferences regarding the patterns of diversification and evolution of Lepidosauria as a whole. Results Here we report on a rhynchocephalian fossil from the Middle Triassic of Germany (Vellberg) that represents the oldest known record of a lepidosaur from anywhere in the world. Reliably dated to 238–240 Mya, this material is about 12 million years older than previously known lepidosaur records and is older than some but not all molecular clock estimates for the origin of lepidosaurs. Using RAG1 sequence data from 76 extant taxa and the new fossil specimens two of several calibrations, we estimate that the most recent common ancestor of Lepidosauria lived at least 242 Mya (238–249.5), and crown-group Squamata originated around 193 Mya (176–213). Conclusion A Early/Middle Triassic date for the origin of Lepidosauria disagrees with previous estimates deep within the Permian and suggests the group evolved as part of the faunal recovery after the end-Permain mass extinction as the climate became more humid. Our origin time for crown-group Squamata coincides with shifts towards warmer climates and dramatic changes in fauna and flora. Most major subclades within Squamata originated in the Cretaceous postdating major continental fragmentation. The

Characterizing the space-timescaling and dynamics of convective precipitation in mountainous terrain and the development of downscaling methods to transfer precipitation fields from one scale to another is the overall motivation for this research. Subtantiing a space-time statistical downscaling model for orographic convective precipitation based on the interplay between meteorological forcings and topographic influences on the scale-invariant properties of precipitation will be assessed.al progress has been made on characterizing the space-time organization of mid-western convective systems and tropical rainfall, which has lead to the development of statistical/dynamical downscaling models. Space-time analysis and downscaling of orographic precipitation has received much less attention due to the complexities of topographic influences. This study uses multi-scale statistical analysis to investigate the space-timescaling of organized thunderstorms that produced heavy rainfall and catastrophic flooding in mountainous regions. Focus is placed on the eastern and western slopes of the Appalachian region and the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. Parameter estimates are analyzed over time and focus is placed on linking changes in the multi-scale parameters with meteorological forcings and orographic influences on the rainfall. Influences of geographic region (e.g., western versus eastern United States) and predominant orographic controls (e.g., windward versus leeward forcing)on trends in multi-scale properties of precipitation are investigated. Spatial resolutions from 1 km to 50 km and temporal integrations from 5 minutes to 3 hours ae considered. This range of space-timescales is needed to bridge typical scale gaps between distributed hydrologic models and numerical weather prediction (NWP) forecasts and attempts to address the open research problem of scaling organized thunderstorms and convection in mountainous terrain down to 1-4 km scales. The potential for

This paper illustrates a multiple length/time-scale framework for the virtual testing of large composite structures. Such framework hinges upon a Mesh Superposition Technique (MST) for the coupling between areas of the structure modelled at different length-scales and upon an efficient solid-to-shell numerical homogenization which exploits the internal symmetries of Unit Cells (UCs). Using this framework, it is possible to minimize the areas of the structure modelled at the lowest- (and computationally demanding) scales and the computational cost required to calculate the homogenised to be used in the higher-scales subdomains of multiscale FE models, as well as to simulate the mechanical response of different parts of the structure using different solvers, depending on where they are expected to provide the most computationally efficient solution. The relevance and key-aspects of the multiple length/time-scale framework are demonstrated through the analysis of a real-sized aeronautical composite component.

U-Pb ages of 290 new detrital zircons from five Late Triassic-Early Jurassic sandstone samples in the northern Sichuan basin, along with other geological data, are used to constrain the sediment provenance and evaluate tectonic-paleogeographic evolution for the adjacent orogens through/from which these sediments were potentially derived. The Upper Triassic depocenter was located at the front of the Longmen Shan belt, and sediments in the western, southern and eastern Sichuan basin shared the southern North China block (NCB) and Qinling belt with the eastern Songpan-Ganzi terrane of Middle-Upper Triassic via the Longmen Shan belt, whereas the northern part of the basin was fed by dominant South Qinling belt (SQB) and northern Yangtze block and possibly subordinate southern NCB. Also, the youngest population in the northern Sichuan basin has a slightly younger age peak (∼235 Ma) than those (∼270 Ma) in other parts of the basin. During the Early Jurassic, the depocenter was still at the front of the Longmen Shan belt but only northern regions (e.g., SQB and northern Yangtze block) fed the basin. The northern Sichuan basin received less sediments from the southern NCB and more from the SQB and northern Yangtze block during the Early Jurassic than during the Late Triassic. The middle Mesoproterozoic detrital zircons, which likely originated from the North Qinling belt and northern Yangtze block where rocks with these zircons may be unexposed, occur more widely in the Lower Jurassic than in the Upper Triassic. These facts suggest that from the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic, it was increasingly difficult for sediments to transport from the NCB into the northern Sichuan basin and the provenance transferred progressively from the southern NCB to both the SQB and northern Yangtze block, implying the continuous South China block-NCB collision during that time.

The Triassic-Jurassic mass-extinction (200 Ma), one of the most severe of the Phanerozoic with 50% marine genera loss, coincides with a period of extensive volcanism related to the initial break-up of Pangaea. A causal relationship, however, is still debated since the North American basalt units are always found above a major palynological turnover. In addition there is no conclusive correlation with marine sections where the mass extinction coincides with two distinct negative carbon-isotope shifts preceding the first Jurassic ammonites. Here we develop an accurate time-frame for the Triassic-Jurassic boundary events by integrating astrochronology and geobiology and we show that the onset of volcanism is most likely responsible for the major turnover in palynology, a modest anomaly in Iridium, a major perturbation in the carbon-isotopes values and the extinction events recorded in conodonts and terrestrial vertebrates

Through in situ observation and indoor tests, the hydrochemical characteristics of a typical karst watershed at three different timescales (diurnal, single storm, and seasonal scales) from June 2013 to March 2014 were investigated, and their influencing factors were analyzed. The results showed that the diurnal variations of the hydrochemistry exhibited a regular changing pattern resulting from the shifting of the main vegetation physiological activity from photosynthesis in the day to respiration in the night. At single storm scale, however, the hydrochemical processes were mainly determined by the number of consecutive rainless days and rainfall intensity, while the diurnal scale effect was weakened. As to the seasonal scale, the overall hydrochemical processes showed quick responses to rainfall events although they responded more quickly in the rainy season than in the dry season. The temperature and the yearly rainfall distribution regime were the two main influencing factors at this scale. PMID:26785541

Highlights: ► We propose a hybrid model that combines seasonal SARIMA model and grey system theory. ► The model is robust at multiple timescales with the anticipated accuracy. ► At month-scale, the SARIMA model shows good representation for monthly MSW generation. ► At medium-term timescale, grey relational analysis could yield the MSW generation. ► At long-term timescale, GM (1, 1) provides a basic scenario of MSW generation. - Abstract: Accurate forecasting of municipal solid waste (MSW) generation is crucial and fundamental for the planning, operation and optimization of any MSW management system. Comprehensive information on waste generation for month-scale, medium-term and long-term timescales is especially needed, considering the necessity of MSW management upgrade facing many developing countries. Several existing models are available but of little use in forecasting MSW generation at multiple timescales. The goal of this study is to propose a hybrid model that combines the seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) model and grey system theory to forecast MSW generation at multiple timescales without needing to consider other variables such as demographics and socioeconomic factors. To demonstrate its applicability, a case study of Xiamen City, China was performed. Results show that the model is robust enough to fit and forecast seasonal and annual dynamics of MSW generation at month-scale, medium- and long-term timescales with the desired accuracy. In the month-scale, MSW generation in Xiamen City will peak at 132.2 thousand tonnes in July 2015 – 1.5 times the volume in July 2010. In the medium term, annual MSW generation will increase to 1518.1 thousand tonnes by 2015 at an average growth rate of 10%. In the long term, a large volume of MSW will be output annually and will increase to 2486.3 thousand tonnes by 2020 – 2.5 times the value for 2010. The hybrid model proposed in this paper can enable decision makers to

albitization. Biotites are not or weakly chloritized. However, these "unaltered" (or primary) granites are strongly weathered into granite boulders embedded in grus by the present-day climatic conditions. The maturest paleoprofiles occur at the northern part of the Catalan Coastal Ranges (i.e. the Montseny-Guilleries High) where the Variscan basement remained exposed during Triassictimes. Towards the South the profiles progressively disappear and Triassic sediments acquire their maximum thickness here. The alteration profiles are related with the Permo-Triassic paleosurface still outcroping on wide areas [Gómez-Gras and Ferrer, 1999]. They are partially covered by Triassic fluvial sandstones (Buntsandstein facies) in the South [Gómez-Gras, 1993] and by Palaeocene alluvial conglomerates in the West [Anadón et al., 1979]. The Triassic paleosurface shows a remarkable stability successively outcropping during Mesozoic and Tertiary times, the pre-Tertiary exhumation and even the present day weathering affected very little these albitized profiles. The hardness and thus preservation of the Triassic paleosurface is mainly related to the albitization. The albitized granites are entirely lacking anorthitic plagioclase, which is much more sensitive to chemo-mechanical weathering. Development of albite and additional chloritization of the primary biotite crystals render the rocks much more resistant to weathering and erosion. This stability is particularly well expressed in case of the Montseny-Guilleries High, which is limited by a high fault scarp at the south-eastern margin. The albitized top of the scarp shows remarkably hard fresh rocks, whereas the base of the scarp (formed of primary, non-albitized facies) is deeply weathered into gruss. This is causing much smother landscape reliefs in the valleys and thalwegs. Since a long time the remarkable persistence of the Triassic paleosurface expressed in the Paleozoic massifs has been highlighted by geomorphologists. Only recently we

Previous work has demonstrated a limited but statistically significant skill in predicting the winter NAO and the occurrence of winter storms on seasonal timescales. One possible actor modulating the interannual variability of winter storm climate could be surface conditions such as snow cover or SST. However, the physical mechanisms behind this predictability are still unknown. In this study, the relation of the occurrence of winter storms in the North Atlantic/European region to hemispheric scale drivers like continental snow cover, SST in the North Atlantic and the NAO is examined in observational and/or reanalysis data for different lead times. Winter storm events are defined according their impact and therefore identified by means of a tracking algorithm based on the exceedance of the local 98% percentile of the 10m wind speed. It is shown that there are statistically significant correlations between the considered hemispheric scale drivers and the occurrence of winter storms with the former leading by up to 8 month. Largest correlations of about 45% are found with a lead time of 4-6 month. These empirical relationships can be used for a simple statistical forecast scheme. The same approach is applied to dynamical seasonal forecast data of the DEMETER project. In this way, the ability of the models to reproduce winter storms and their relation to the hemispheric scale factors is analysed. First results show that the simulated relationships are weaker than observed for both snow and SST as predictors. Furthermore, there is evidence that models reproducing the observed relations more realistically attain higher skill in predicting the occurrence of winter storms.

The entropy S in natural time as well as the entropy in natural time under time reversal S- have already found useful applications in the physics of complex systems, e.g., in the analysis of electrocardiograms (ECGs). Here, we focus on the complexity measures Λl which result upon considering how the statistics of the time series Δ S≤ft[\\equiv S- S-\\right] changes upon varying the scale l. These scale-specific measures are ratios of the standard deviations σ(Δ S_l) and hence independent of the mean value and the standard deviation of the data. They focus on the different dynamics that appear on different scales. For this reason, they can be considered complementary to other standard measures of heart rate variability in ECG, like SDNN, as well as other complexity measures already defined in natural time. An application to the analysis of ECG —when solely using NN intervals— is presented: We show how Λl can be used to separate ECG of healthy individuals from those suffering from congestive heart failure and sudden cardiac death.

We study the stability of critical scaling against the time-dependent perturbation in the contact process(CP) model. The critical probability of the particle varies asp = p0 + ct-α. we perform the static Monte Carlo simulation using the finite size scaling theory in the steady state. For the α > 1/v∥, the time dependent perturbation is irrelevant, therefore , the critical exponents β/v∥,β/v⊥ have the DP value. For the α = 1/v∥, β/v∥ is DP value but β/v⊥ is varied with perturbation strength c. For the α < 1/v∥, the particle density is decayed with ρ ˜ tαβ in thermodynamic limit. However, for the all case, z have DP value. To study the stability of critical scaling, we introduce the time-dependent perturbation and know that critical scaling function is satisfied in all cases. Numerical simulations confirm our predictions.

We prove two theorems concerning the time evolution in general isolated quantum systems. The theorems are relevant to the issue of the timescale in the approach to equilibrium. The first theorem shows that there can be pathological situations in which the relaxation takes an extraordinarily long time, while the second theorem shows that one can always choose an equilibrium subspace, the relaxation to which requires only a short time for any initial state.

Damages from sea level rise, as well as strategies to manage the associated risk, hinge critically on the timescale and eventual magnitude of sea level rise. Satellite observations and paleo-data suggest that the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS) loses mass in response to increased temperatures, and may thus contribute substantially to sea level rise as anthropogenic climate change progresses. The timescale of GIS mass loss and sea level rise are deeply uncertain, and are often assumed to be constant. However, previous ice sheet modeling studies have shown that the timescale of GIS response likely decreases strongly with increasing temperature anomaly. Here, we map the relationship between temperature anomaly and the timescale of GIS response, by perturbing a calibrated, three-dimensional model of GIS behavior. Additional simulations with a profile, higher-order, ice sheet model yield timescales that are broadly consistent with those obtained using the three-dimensional model, and shed light on the feedbacks in the ice sheet system that cause the timescale shortening. Semi-empirical modeling studies that assume a constant timescale of sea level adjustment, and are calibrated to small preanthropogenic temperature and sea level changes, may underestimate future sea level rise. Our analysis suggests that the benefits of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, in terms of avoided sea level rise from the GIS, may be greatest if emissions reductions begin before large temperature increases have been realized. Reducing anthropogenic climate change may also allow more time for design and deployment of risk management strategies by slowing sea level contributions from the GIS.

We have derived a timescale τeq that describes the characteristic time for a single compound i with a saturation vapour concentration Ceff,i to reach thermodynamic equilibrium between the gas and particle phases. The equilibration process was assumed to take place via gas-phase diffusion and absorption into a liquid-like phase present in the particles. It was further shown that τeq combines two previously derived and often applied timescales τa and τs that account for the changes in the gas and particle phase concentrations of i resulting from the equilibration, respectively. The validity of τeq was tested by comparing its predictions against results from a numerical model that explicitly simulates the transfer of i between the gas and particle phases. By conducting a large number of simulations where the values of the key input parameters were varied randomly, it was found out that τeq yields highly accurate results when i is a semi-volatile compound in the sense that the ratio of total (gas and particle phases) concentration of i to the saturation vapour concentration of i, μ, is below unity. On the other hand, the comparison of analytical and numerical timescales revealed that using τa or τs alone to calculate the equilibration timescale may lead to considerable errors. It was further shown that τeq tends to overpredict the equilibration time when i behaves as a non-volatile compound in a sense that μ > 1. Despite its simplicity, the timescale derived here has useful applications. First, it can be used to assess if semi-volatile compounds reach thermodynamic equilibrium during dynamic experiments that involve changes in the compound volatility. Second, the timescale can be used in modeling of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) to check whether SOA forming compounds equilibrate over a certain time interval.

Echinoderms have long been considered to be one of the animal phyla that is strictly marine. However, there is growing evidence that some recent species may live in either brackish or hypersaline environments. Surprisingly, discoveries of fossil echinoderms in non-(open)marine paleoenvironments are lacking. In Wojkowice Quarry (Southern Poland), sediments of lowermost part of the Middle Triassic are exposed. In limestone layer with cellular structures and pseudomorphs after gypsum, two dense accumulations of articulated ophiuroids (Aspiduriella similis (Eck)) were documented. The sediments with ophiuroids were formed in environment of increased salinity waters as suggested by paleontological, sedimentological, petrographical and geochemical data. Discovery of Triassic hypersaline ophiuroids invalidates the paleontological assumption that fossil echinoderms are indicators of fully marine conditions. Thus caution needs to be taken when using fossil echinoderms in paleoenvironmental reconstructions. PMID:23185442

A new Triassic archosaurian from China shows a number of aquatic specializations, of which the most striking is the extreme lateral compression of the long tail. Others that may also reflect aquatic adaptations include platelike scapula and coracoid, elongate neck with extremely long and slender ribs, and reduction of osteoderms. In contrast, its pelvic girdle and hind limb have no aquatic modifications. Anatomic features, taphonomy, and local geological data suggest that it may have lived in a coastal-island environment. This lifestyle, convergent with some Jurassic marine crocodyliforms that lived at least 40 million years later and the saltwater species of extant Crocodylus, contradicts with the prevailing view that Triassic archosaurians were restricted to nonmarine ecosystems. Its mosaic anatomy represents a previously unknown ecomorph within primitive archosaurians.

Experimental and magneto-hydro-dynamic simulation results of micro- and nanosecond timescale underwater electrical Al, Cu and W wires explosions are presented. A capacitor bank with stored energy up to 6 kJ (discharge current up to 80 kA with 2.5 μs quarter period) was used in microsecond timescale experiments and water forming line generator with current amplitude up to 100 kA and pulse duration of 100 ns were used in nanosecond timescale experiments. Extremely high energy deposition of up to 60 times the atomization enthalpy was registered in nanosecond timescale explosions. A discharge channel evolution and surface temperature were analyzed by streak shadow imaging and using fast photo-diode with a set of interference filters, respectively. Microsecond timescale electrical explosion of cylindrical wire array showed extremely high pressure of converging shock waves at the axis, up to 0.2 MBar. A 1D and 2D magneto-hydro-dynamic simulation demonstrated good agreement with such experimental parameters as discharge channel current, voltage, radius, and temperature.

To learn the forest dynamics and evaluate the ecosystem services of forest effectively, a timely acquisition of spatial and quantitative information of forestland is very necessary. Here, a new method was proposed for mapping forest cover changes by combining multi-scale satellite remote-sensing imagery with time series data. Using time series Normalized Difference Vegetation Index products derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer images (MODIS-NDVI) and Landsat Thematic Mapper/Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (TM/ETM+) images as data source, a hierarchy stepwise analysis from coarse scale to fine scale was developed for detecting the forest change area. At the coarse scale, MODIS-NDVI data with 1-km resolution were used to detect the changes in land cover types and a land cover change map was constructed using NDVI values at vegetation growing seasons. At the fine scale, based on the results at the coarse scale, Landsat TM/ETM+ data with 30-m resolution were used to precisely detect the forest change location and forest change trend by analyzing time series forest vegetation indices (IFZ). The method was tested using the data for Hubei Province, China. The MODIS-NDVI data from 2001 to 2012 were used to detect the land cover changes, and the overall accuracy was 94.02 % at the coarse scale. At the fine scale, the available TM/ETM+ images at vegetation growing seasons between 2001 and 2012 were used to locate and verify forest changes in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, and the overall accuracy was 94.53 %. The accuracy of the two layer hierarchical monitoring results indicated that the multi-scale monitoring method is feasible and reliable. PMID:27056478

The Triassic-Jurassic boundary was marked by global changes including carbon-cycle perturbations and the opening of the Atlantic Ocean. These changes were accompanied by one of the major extinction events of the Phanerozoic. The carbon-cycle perturbations have been recorded in carbon isotope curves from bulk carbonates, organic carbon and fossil wood in several Tethyan locations and have been used for chemostratigraphic purposes. Here we present data from shallow-marine carbonates deposited on a homoclinal Middle Eastern carbonate ramp (United Arab Emirates). Our site was located at the equator throughout the Late Triassic and the Early Jurassic, and this study provides the first constraints of environmental changes at the low-latitudes for the Triassic-Jurassic boundary. Shallow-marine carbonate depositional systems are extremely sensitive to palaeoenvironmental changes and their usefulness for chemostratigraphy is being debated. However, the palaeogeographic location of the studied carbonate ramp gives us a unique insight into a tropical carbonate factory at a time of severe global change. Stable isotope measurements (carbon and oxygen) are being carried out on micrite, ooids and shell material along the Triassic-Jurassic boundary. The stable isotope results on micrite show a prominent negative shift in carbon isotope values of approximately 2 ‰ just below the inferred position of the Triassic-Jurassic boundary. A similar isotopic trend is also observed across the Tethys but with a range of amplitudes (from ~2 ‰ to ~4 ‰). These results seem to indicate that the neritic carbonates from our studied section can be used for chemostratigraphic purposes, and the amplitudes of the carbon isotope shifts provide critical constraints on the magnitude of carbon-cycle perturbations at low latitudes across the Triassic-Jurassic boundary. Seawater temperatures across the Triassic-Jurassic boundary will be constrained using the clumped isotope palaeo-thermometer applied

In this paper, we investigate a networked prisoner's dilemma game where individuals' strategy-selection timescale evolves based on their historical learning information. We show that the more times the current strategy of an individual is learnt by his neighbors, the longer time he will stick on the successful behavior by adaptively adjusting the lifetime of the adopted strategy. Through characterizing the extent of success of the individuals with normalized payoffs, we show that properly using the learned information can form a positive feedback mechanism between cooperative behavior and its lifetime, which can boost cooperation on square lattices and scale-free networks.

A technique using causal Green’s function is proposed for extending and bridging multiple timescales in molecular dynamics for modeling time-dependent processes at the atomistic level in nanomaterials and other physical, chemical, and biological systems. The technique is applied to model propagation of a pulse in a one-dimensional lattice of nonlinear oscillators and ripples in graphene from femtoseconds to microseconds. It is shown that, at least in the vibration problems, the technique can accelerate the convergence of molecular dynamics and extend the timescales by eight orders of magnitude.

We perform a comparative statistical analysis between the acoustic-emission time series from the ancient Greek Athena temple in Syracuse and the sequence of nearby earthquakes. We find an apparent association between acoustic-emission bursts and the earthquake occurrence. The waiting-time distributions for acoustic-emission and earthquake time series are described by a unique scaling law indicating self-similarity over a wide range of magnitude scales. This evidence suggests a correlation between the aging process of the temple and the local seismic activity.

The stick–slip dynamics of the peeling of an adhesive tape is characterized by bifurcations that have been experimentally well studied. In this work, we investigate the timescale in which the the stick–slips happen leading to the bifurcations. This is fundamental to understanding the triboluminescence and acoustic emissions associated with the bifurcations. We establish a relationship between the timescale of the bifurcations and the inherent mathematical structure of the peeling dynamics by studying a characteristic time quantity associated with the dynamics. PMID:25663802

This paper explores the improved time-scale representation by considering the non-linear property for effectively identifying rotating machine faults in the time-scale domain. A new time-scale signature, called time-scale manifold (TSM), is proposed in this study through combining phase space reconstruction (PSR), continuous wavelet transform (CWT), and manifold learning. For the TSM generation, an optimal scale band is selected to eliminate the influence of unconcerned scale components, and the noise in the selected band is suppressed by manifold learning to highlight the inherent non-linear structure of faulty impacts. The TSM reserves the non-stationary information and reveals the non-linear structure of the fault pattern, with the merits of noise suppression and resolution improvement. The TSM ridge is further extracted by seeking the ridge with energy concentration lying on the TSM signature. It inherits the advantages of both the TSM and ridge analysis, and hence is beneficial to demodulation of the fault information. Through analyzing the instantaneous amplitude (IA) of the TSM ridge, in which the noise is nearly not contained, the fault characteristic frequency can be exactly identified. The whole process of the proposed fault diagnosis scheme is automatic, and its effectiveness has been verified by means of typical faulty vibration/acoustic signals from a gearbox and bearings. A reliable performance of the new method is validated in comparison with traditional enveloping methods for rotating machine fault diagnosis.

More than 600 m of Triassic strata are exposed just N of Currie, Nevada in secs. 8--9 T29N, R64E. The Thaynes Formation is 468 m of limestone, calcareous shale and siltstone that rest disconformably on the Permian Gerster Formation. A 7.7-m-thick interval of ammonite packstones is 8.8 m above the base of the Thaynes in the NW1/4NW1/SW1/4 sec. 8. Ammonites from these packstones indicate the Tardus Zone of late Smithian age. The Shinarump Formation of the Chinle Group (Upper Triassic) disconformably overlies the Thaynes Formation and is 19.4 m of trough-crossbedded, silica-pebble conglomerate and quartzarenite with silicified wood in the SW1/4SW1/4SW1/4 sec. 9. Shinarump crossbeds dip to the N. Chinle Group strata above the Shinarump are 169.2 m thick and consist of reddish brown siltstone, fine sandstone and minor micritic limestone. Ripple laminations and horizontal bedding are the dominant bedforms. These strata are assigned to the Rock Point Formation, the top of which is cut by a fault N of Currie. Upper Triassic nonmarine strata north of Currie are the northwesternmost outcrops of the Chinle Group. Rock Point strata here are tidal flat facies that indicate proximity of the Late Triassic shoreline in northeastern Nevada. However, it is likely that the Chinle Group strata N of Currie are allochthonous, having been originally deposited to the E in what is now Utah.

Modal analyses and microprobe studies were performed on eight core samples obtained from the US Geological Survey Well A1 324. The well is situated in the southern part of the buried Triassic Dunbarton Basin, about 1 km south of the US Department of Energy's Westinghouse Savannah River Company Site. The samples came from an interval of 407.0--413.4 m beneath the land surface. At the well site, Triassic red beds are overlain by Late Cretaceous and Tertiary sediments which have an aggregate thickness of 408 m. The sample from a depth of 407 m is a weathered, poorly sorted, clayey sandstone from the basal portion of the Late Cretaceous Cape Fear Formation. This specimen is not metamorphosed; whereas, the Triassic specimens taken from an interval of 411.6--413.4 m exhibit evidence of thermal metamorphism as well as hydrothermal alteration. In hand specimen, three of the samples (412.8--413.4 m) resemble hornfelses. These samples exhibit decussate texture. Results of modal analyses of the two deepest specimens follow: plagioclase (43-52%), quartz (9-23%), chlorite (22-29%), epidote (1-6%), hematite (3-4%), and magnetite (2-3%). Relict detrital quartz grains, especially the finer ones, are mostly angular-to-subangular and the grain boundaries show little evidence of rounding. The authors feel that hydrothermal alteration was the principal metamorphic process. This belief is supported by the fact that most of the plagioclase has undergone extensive sericitization. In addition, the presence of abundant chlorite together with a minor amount of epidote supports this interpretation. The alteration halo extends upward for 1.8 m. This interpretation is based on the observation that two Triassic arkose sandstone specimens (411.6 m, 412.2 m) contain clouded, slightly sericitized K-feldspar and plagioclase grains in a matrix of red-colored smectite.

Particle tracking experiments with high speed digital microscopy yield the positions and trajectories of lipid droplets inside living cells. Angular correlation analysis shows that the lipid droplets have uncorrelated motion at short timescales (τ < 1 ms) followed by anti-persistent motion for lag times in the range of 1 ⩽ τ ⩽ 10 ms. The angular correlation at longer timescales, τ > 10 ms, becomes persistent, indicating directed movement. The motion at all timescales is associated with the lipid droplets being tethered to and driven along the microtubule network. The point at which the angular correlation changes from anti-persistent to persistent motion corresponds to the cross over between sub-diffusive and super diffusive motion, as observed by mean square displacement analysis. Correct analysis of the angular correlations of the detector noise is found to be crucial in modelling the observed phenomena. PMID:23574726

We show that time-dependent couplings may lead to nontrivial scaling properties of the surface fluctuations of the asymptotic regime in nonequilibrium kinetic roughening models. Three typical situations are studied. In the case of a crossover between two different rough regimes, the time-dependent coupling may result in anomalous scaling for scales above the crossover length. In a different setting, for a crossover from a rough to either a flat or damping regime, the time-dependent crossover length may conspire to produce a rough surface, although the most relevant term tends to flatten the surface. In addition, our analysis sheds light into an existing debate in the problem of spontaneous imbibition, where time-dependent couplings naturally arise in theoretical models and experiments.

Revision of the 1982 timescale of Harland et al. has led to the compilation of 377 isotopic dates for calibration of the Cenozoic to Cretaceous time interval. The results show that the ages of stage boundaries based on glauconite dates are on average about 2 m.y. younger than those based on nonglauconite dates, but for many Cenozoic and Late Cretaceous stages the differences are too small to require special consideration of glauconite dates. Future work may reveal an irreducible systematic difference between glauconite and nonglauconite timescales, but the progress made so far in recognizing those glauconites likely to yield reliable dates for the Cenozoic to Late Cretaceous interval may continue to provide useful time-scale calibration points.

One major gas-prone petroleum system characterizes the sparsely explored South and North Barents Basin Provinces of the Russian Arctic in the eastern Barents Sea. More than 13 billion barrels of oil equivalent (79 trillion cubic feet of gas) known ultimately recoverable gas reserves in seven fields were sourced from Triassic marine and continental shales and stored in Jurassic (97%) and Triassic (3%) marine and continental sandstone reservoir rocks. The basins contain 18-20 kilometers of pre-Upper Permian carbonate and post-Upper Permian siliciclastic sedimentary fill. Late Permian-Triassic(?) rifting and subsidence resulted in the deposition of as much as 9 kilometers of Triassic strata, locally injected with sills. Rapidly buried Lower Triassic source rocks generated hydrocarbons as early as Late Triassic into stratigraphic traps and structural closures that were modified periodically. Thermal cooling and deformation associated with Cenozoic uplift impacted seal integrity and generation processes, modified traps, and caused gas expansion and remigration.

The size of an organism exercises tremendous control over its physiology, life history, and ecology, yet the factors that influence body size evolution remain poorly understood. One major limitation is the lack of appropriate datasets spanning long intervals of evolutionary time. Here, we document size trends in conodonts (tooth-like microfossils from marine chordates) because they evolved rapidly and are known to change size during intervals of environmental change. By measuring photographs from the Catalogue of Conodonts (Ziegler 1982), we compiled a database of conodont P1 element measurements for 575 species and subspecies from the Cambrian through Triassic periods. Because tooth size correlates with body size in conodont animals and their extant relatives, conodont element length can serve as a proxy for the size of the conodont animal. We find that mean and maximum size across species increased during the early Paleozoic, peaked during the Devonian-Mississippian, and then generally decreased until conodonts went extinct at the end of the Triassic. We used regression analyses to compare conodont mean size trends to potential environmental predictors, such as changing atmospheric pO2, atmospheric pCO2, and sea level. Conodont size exhibited poor correlation with these environmental factors, suggesting that conodont evolution may have been more strongly influenced by other environmental covariates or ecological variables such as predation and competition.

Mesozoic marine reptiles went through a severe turnover near the end of the Triassic. Notably, an important extinction event affected ichthyosaurs, sweeping a large part of the group. This crisis is, however, obscured by an extremely poor fossil record and is regarded as protracted over the entire Norian-earliest Jurassic interval, for the lack of a more precise scenario. The iconic whale-sized shastasaurid ichthyosaurs are regarded as early victims of this turnover, disappearing by the middle Norian. Here we evaluate the pattern of this turnover among ichthyosaurs by analysing the faunal record of two Rhaetian localities. One locality is Autun, eastern France; we rediscovered in this material the holotypes or partial `type' series of Rachitrema pellati, Actiosaurus gaudryi, Ichthyosaurus rheticus, Ichthyosaurus carinatus and Plesiosaurus bibractensis; a revised taxonomic scheme is proposed. The second assemblage comes from a new locality: Cuers, southeastern France. Both these assemblages provide several lines of evidence for the presence of shastasaurid-like ichthyosaurs in the Rhaetian of Europe. These occurrences suggest that both the demise of shastasaurids and the sudden radiation of neoichthyosaurians occurred within a short time window; this turnover appears not only more abrupt but also more complex than previously postulated and adds a new facet of the end-Triassic mass extinction.

New data from numerous detailed mass-spectrometric studies have detected triaromatic dinosteroids in Precambrian to Cenozoic rock samples. Triaromatic dinosteroids are organic geochemicals derived from dinosterols, compounds known in modern organisms to be the nearly exclusive widely occurring products of dinoflagellates. We observed the ubiquitous occurrence of these dinosteroids in 49 Late Triassic through Cretaceous marine source rocks and the absence of them in 13 Permian-Carboniferous source rocks synergistic with the dinoflagellate cyst record. However, finding dinosteroids in lower Paleozoic and Precambrian strata presents challenging results for molecular paleontologists, evolutionary biologists, palynologists, and especially for those concerned with the food web at various times of biological crisis. Other than the few species known as parasites and symbionts, many other dinoflagellate species are important as primary producers. The presence of Precambrian to Devonian triaromatic dinosteroids gives chemostratigraphic evidence of dinoflagellates (or other organisms with similar chemosynthetic capabilities) in rocks significantly older than the oldest undisputed dinoflagellate fossils (dinoflagellate cysts from the Middle Triassic, ˜ 240 Ma), and older than the putative Silurian ˜ 420 Ma) dinocyst,Arpylorus antiquus (Calandra) Sargent, from Tunisia. This systematic chemostratigraphic approach can shed light not only on lineages of dinoflagellates and their precursors, but potentially on many other lineages, especially bacteria, algae, plants, and possibly some metazoans.

Clathropteris was a typical dipterid fern with well documented fossil record and was widely dispersed during the Mesozoic; however, our knowledge of fertile structures including in situ spores for this genus is still very limited. Here we report well-preserved compression specimens of Clathropteris obovata Oishi from the Late Triassic of Guangyuan, Sichuan Province, China. The specimens show round to oval and exindusiate sori, vertical to oblique annuli in sporangia, and in situ trilete spores with verrucate and baculate sculptures, which are comparable to dispersed spore genera of Converrucosisporites and Conbaculatisporites. Comparisons of relevant fossil taxa suggest that specimens of C. obovata from Triassic of China provide for the first time in Asia the detailed fertile structures with in situ spore characters of dipterid fossil Clathropteris. Unlike living Dipteris, Mesozoic fossils of Dipteridaceae show a high diversity and a range of complex morphology of in situ spores, thus are significant for the evolutionary links between Dipteridaceae and other related fern clade, including Gleicheniaceae and Matoniaceae of the Gleicheniales. PMID:25773305

The sedimentary succession of the Permian to Middle Triassic of the Albanian Alps is described, as part of the eastern Adria passive margin towards the Tethys. A carbonate ramp deepening towards NE in present day coordinates developed during the Middle Permian and was affected by block faulting with the deposition of carbonate breccia. The Early Triassic was characterized by intense terrigenous deposition with several cobble conglomerate units up to 80 m-thick, and by oolitic carbonate shoals. The fine clastic deposition ended gradually during the earliest Anisian and a wide calcarenitic ramp occupied the area, with small local carbonate mounds. Basinward, the red nodular limestone of the Han Bulog Formation was interbedded with calcarenitic material exported from the ramp. Drowning to more open conditions occurred towards the end of the Pelsonian. Subsequently, cherty limestone and tuffitic layers spread over the entire area. Towards the end of the Ladinian, with the end of the volcanic activity, red pelagic limestone was deposited locally for a short period. By the latest Ladinian most of the area returned to shallow-water conditions, with a peritidal carbonate platform. In the Theth area, in contrast, a basin with black organic-rich dolostone and limestone developed which seems to be unique in that part of the Adria passive margin. The occurrence of cobble conglomerate units in the Lower Triassic testifies to very active block faulting and high accommodation, not yet described for the area.

The link between the end-Triassic mass extinction (~200 Ma), one of the big five, and the emplacement of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP), one of the biggest flood basalt provinces, has been controversial. Here we show with a multi-disciplinary approach that the onset of volcanism in Morocco is synchronous with the extinction events documented in the terrestrial Newark basin (US) and in the marine realm (UK). Roughly 20 kyr later the main pulse of initial CAMP volcanism is synchronously recorded throughout the rest of the northern CAMP province. This event also seems to be short-lived (<100 kyr), probably occurring in distinct instantaneous pulses. Additional cyclostratigraphic control on the marine St. Audrie's Bay Tr-J boundary section (UK) indicates that both these two CAMP pulses occurred before the recently defined (first occurrence Jurassic ammonites) Triassic Jurassic boundary. This boundary, which can be considered as a first recovery event, occurs about 6 precession cycles (~120 kyr) after the end-Triassic mass extinction level.

The end-Triassic mass extinction (~201.4 million years ago), marked by terrestrial ecosystem turnover and up to ~50% loss in marine biodiversity, has been attributed to intensified volcanic activity during the break-up of Pangaea. Here, we present compound-specific carbon-isotope data of long-chain n-alkanes derived from waxes of land plants, showing a ~8.5 per mil negative excursion, coincident with the extinction interval. These data indicate strong carbon-13 depletion of the end-Triassic atmosphere, within only 10,000 to 20,000 years. The magnitude and rate of this carbon-cycle disruption can be explained by the injection of at least ~12 × 10(3) gigatons of isotopically depleted carbon as methane into the atmosphere. Concurrent vegetation changes reflect strong warming and an enhanced hydrological cycle. Hence, end-Triassic events are robustly linked to methane-derived massive carbon release and associated climate change. PMID:21778394

A unique biomarker, a C 33n-alkylcyclohexane ( n-heptacosylcyclohexane), which strongly increases in abundance within the extinction interval of the end-Permian ecological crisis, is here reported from the key Permian-Triassic (P-Tr) marine section in Greenland. Prior to this study, this compound had been known from Early Triassic organic-rich marine rocks and oils from the northern Perth Basin, Western Australia for two decades. We have identified the compound in high relative abundance in 29 samples from P-Tr marine sections from two separate paleogeographic localities, from Laurasia and Gondwana. Relative concentrations of the C 33n-alkylcyclohexane show similar changes to the relative abundances of extinct spinose acritarchs ( Veryhachium and Micrhystridium) indicating that the source organism of the C 33n-alkylcyclohexane is associated with the depositional environments/facies in which the acritarchs are identified. These organisms probably formed the cornerstone of the unique marine ecosystem that thrived in the extinction aftermath in the Early Triassic Ocean.

The Cyclostomata consists of the two orders Myxiniformes (hagfishes) and Petromyzoniformes (lampreys), and its monophyly has been unequivocally supported by recent molecular phylogenetic studies. Under this updated vertebrate phylogeny, we performed in silico evolutionary analyses using currently available cDNA sequences of cyclostomes. We first calculated the GC-content at four-fold degenerate sites (GC(4)), which revealed that an extremely high GC-content is shared by all the lamprey species we surveyed, whereas no striking pattern in GC-content was observed in any of the hagfish species surveyed. We then estimated the timing of diversification in cyclostome evolution using nucleotide and amino acid sequences. We obtained divergence times of 470-390 million years ago (Mya) in the Ordovician-Silurian-Devonian Periods for the interordinal split between Myxiniformes and Petromyzoniformes; 90-60 Mya in the Cretaceous-Tertiary Periods for the split between the two hagfish subfamilies, Myxininae and Eptatretinae; 280-220 Mya in the Permian-Triassic Periods for the split between the two lamprey subfamilies, Geotriinae and Petromyzoninae; and 30-10 Mya in the Tertiary Period for the split between the two lamprey genera, Petromyzon and Lethenteron. This evolutionary configuration indicates that Myxiniformes and Petromyzoniformes diverged shortly after the common ancestor of cyclostomes split from the future gnathostome lineage. Our results also suggest that intra-subfamilial diversification in hagfish and lamprey lineages (especially those distributed in the northern hemisphere) occurred in the Cretaceous or Tertiary Periods. PMID:17261918

Evidence for a connection of the Arctic Alaska plate (including Chukotka) with Siberia from Cambrian until Late Triassictime can be made on the basis of paleobiogeography. Arctic Alaska contains a number of biogeographically distinctive megafossils for select time intervals, notably the Middle Cambrian, Early and Late Ordovician, Early and Middle Devonian, Mississippian, and Late Triassic. Middle Cambrian trilobites are strictly Siberian in affinity, but also show close affinities with coeval trilobites from the Farewell terrane of SW Alaska. Late Ordovician brachiopods, gastropods, trilobites, and ostracodes are known from the Shublik Mountains, NE Brooks Range and York Mountains of the Seward Peninsula. Affinities are likewise primarily with Siberia (sharing the primarily Siberian pentameroid brachiopod genera Tcherskidium and Eoconchidium and the strictly Siberian trilobite genus Monorakos), but also with the Farewell terrane. Late Early Devonian and Middle Devonian brachiopods and calcareous green algae from Arctic Alaska are similarly allied with Siberia and the Farewell and Alexander terranes of southern Alaska. Early Mississippian faunas from the lower part of the Lisburne Group and underlying Endicott Group contain relatively widespread fauna, including taxa recognized both in North America and Eurasia, consistent with the relatively cosmopolitan paleobiogeographic conditions of this interval. However, Late Mississippian brachiopod fauna from the upper part of the Lisburne Group contain many brachiopods of strictly Eurasian affinities, notably the gigantoproductids, which are unknown in cratonic North America, but widespread across Eurasia and even North Africa. Late Mississippian lycopods from this terrane have previously been noted as demonstrating strong Angaran affinities. Permian faunas of Arctic Alaska show strong affinities as well with the Siberian Arctic, virtually lacking any fusilinids and reefal buildups, which in contradistinction are commonly

The Kibble-Zurek mechanism demands an initial adiabatic stage before an impulse stage to have a frozen correlation length that generates topological defects in a cooling phase transition. Here we study such a driven critical dynamics but with an initial condition that is near the critical point and that is far away from equilibrium. In this case, there is no initial adiabatic stage at all and thus adiabaticity is broken. However, we show that there again exists a finite length scale arising from the driving that divides the evolution into three stages. A relaxation-finite-time-scaling-adiabatic scenario is then proposed in place of the adiabatic-impulse-adiabatic scenario of the original Kibble-Zurek mechanism. A unified scaling theory, which combines finite-timescaling with critical initial slip, is developed to describe the universal behavior and is confirmed with numerical simulations of a two-dimensional classical Ising model.

Different processes cause patterns of shoreline change which are exhibited at different magnitudes and nested into different spatial and timescale hierarchies. The 77-km outer beach at Cape Cod National Seashore offers one of the few U.S. federally owned portions of beach to study shoreline change within the full range of sediment source and sink relationships, and barely affected by human intervention. 'Mean trends' of shoreline changes are best observed at long timescales but contain much spatial variation thus many sites are not equal in response. Long-term, earlier-noted trends are confirmed but the added quantification and resolution improves greatly the understanding of appropriate spatial and timescales of those processes driving bluff retreat and barrier island changes in both north and south depocenters. Shorter timescales allow for comparison of trends and uncertainty in shoreline change at local scales but are dependent upon some measure of storm intensity and seasonal frequency. Single-event shoreline survey results for one storm at daily intervals after the erosional phase suggest a recovery time for the system of six days, identifies three sites with abnormally large change, and that responses at these sites are spatially coherent for now unknown reasons. Areas near inlets are the most variable at all timescales. Hierarchies in both process and form are suggested.

We investigate the variability of exoplanetary radio emission using stellar magnetic maps and 3D field extrapolation techniques. We use a sample of hot Jupiter hosting stars, focusing on the HD 179949, HD 189733 and τ Boo systems. Our results indicate two time-scales over which radio emission variability may occur at magnetized hot Jupiters. The first is the synodic period of the star-planet system. The origin of variability on this time-scale is the relative motion between the planet and the interplanetary plasma that is corotating with the host star. The second time-scale is the length of the magnetic cycle. Variability on this time-scale is caused by evolution of the stellar field. At these systems, the magnitude of planetary radio emission is anticorrelated with the angular separation between the subplanetary point and the nearest magnetic pole. For the special case of τ Boo b, whose orbital period is tidally locked to the rotation period of its host star, variability only occurs on the time-scale of the magnetic cycle. The lack of radio variability on the synodic period at τ Boo b is not predicted by previous radio emission models, which do not account for the co-rotation of the interplanetary plasma at small distances from the star.

Speech perception requires the successful interpretation of both phonetic and syllabic information in the auditory signal. It has been suggested by Poeppel (2003) that phonetic processing requires an optimal timescale of 25 ms while the timescale of syllabic processing is much slower (150-250 ms). To better understand the operation of brain networks at these character